The unique color and type characteristics of watermelon fruits are regulated by many molecular mechanisms. However, it still needs to be combined with more abundant genetic data to fine-tune the positioning. We assembled genomes of two Korean inbred watermelon lines (cv. 242-1 and 159-1) with unique color and fruit-type characteristics and identified 23,921 and 24,451 protein-coding genes in the two genomes, respectively. To obtain more precise results for further study, we resequenced one individual of each parental line and an F2 population composed of 87 individuals. This identified 1,539 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 80 InDel markers that provided a high-density genetic linkage map with a total length of 3,036.9 cM. Quantitative trait locus mapping identified 15 QTLs for watermelon fruit quality-related traits, including β-carotene and lycopene content in fruit flesh, fruit shape index, skin thickness, flesh color, and rind color. By investigating the mapping intervals, we identified 33 candidate genes containing variants in the coding sequence. Among them, Cla97C01G008760 was annotated as a phytoene synthase with a single-nucleotide variant (A → G) in the first exon at 9,539,129 bp of chromosome 1 that resulted in the conversion of a lysine to glutamic acid, indicating that this gene might regulate flesh color changes at the protein level. These findings not only prove the importance of a phytoene synthase gene in pigmentation but also explain an important reason for the color change of watermelon flesh.

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Particulate matter (PM) is a serious threat to human health, climate, and ecosystems. Furthermore, owing to the combined influence of indoor and outdoor particles, indoor PM can pose a greater threat than urban PM. Plants can help to reduce PM pollution by acting as biofilters. Plants with different leaf characteristics have varying capacities to capture PM. However, the PM mitigation effects of plants and their primary factors are unclear. In this study, we investigated the PM adsorption and leaf characteristics of five ornamental sweet potato (Ipomea batatas L.) cultivars and two common indoor plants (Hedera helix L. and Epipremnum aureum Lindl. & Andre) exposed to approximately 300 μg m−3 of fly ash particles to assess the factors influencing PM adsorption on leaves and to understand the effects of PM pollution on the leaf characteristics of plants. We analyzed the correlation between PM adsorption and photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (Tr), leaf area (LA), leaf width/length ratio (W/L), stomatal density (SD), and stomatal pore size (SP). A Pearson’s correlation analysis and a principal component analysis (PCA) were used to evaluate the effects of different leaf characteristics on PM adsorption. The analysis indicated that leaf gas exchange factors, such as Pn and Tr, and morphological factors, such as W/L and LA, were the primary parameters influencing PM adsorption in all cultivars and species tested. Pn, Tr, and W/L showed a positive correlation with PM accumulation, whereas LA was negatively correlated.

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) is the sixth-most important crop in the world following rice, wheat, potato, maize, and cassava. Four varieties ('Beniharuka', 'Annobeni', 'Pungwonmi', 'Hogammi') and their Japanese cultivars are broadly distributed in South Korea. In the Korean marketplace, sweet potatoes are classified by color and shape, not by variety, making it necessary to differentiate varieties for uniform production and consumption. In this study, molecular markers were developed to distinguish the four varieties of sweet potato using SNPs and genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) analysis via a tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR. The results revealed that three variety-specific fragments (164 bp and 241 bp of SNP 04-27457768 and 292 bp of SNP 03-16195623) were amplified in the 'Beniharuka', 'Pungwonmi', and 'Annobeni' sweet potato varieties. There were instances where some varieties produced three bands within the gel electrophoresis, indicating heterozygosity at the given SNPs loci. DNA sequencing analysis also confirmed the results of electrophoresis at the SNPs loci. Overall, these molecular markers would provide a useful, rapid, and, simple evaluation method for the Korean sweet potato marketplace, where the mixing of varieties is a serious issue.

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