The Cucurbitaceae family (cucurbit) includes several economically important crops, such as melon, cucumber, watermelon, pumpkin, squash and gourds. During the past several years, genomic and genetic data have been rapidly accumulated for cucurbits. To store, mine, analyze, integrate and disseminate these large-scale datasets and to provide a central portal for the cucurbit research and breeding community, we have developed the Cucurbit Genomics Database (CuGenDB; http://cucurbitgenomics.org) using the Tripal toolkit. The database currently contains all available genome and expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences, genetic maps, and transcriptome profiles for cucurbit species, as well as sequence annotations, biochemical pathways and comparative genomic analysis results such as synteny blocks and homologous gene pairs between different cucurbit species. A set of analysis and visualization tools and user-friendly query interfaces have been implemented in the database to facilitate the usage of these large-scale data by the community. In particular, two new tools have been developed in the database, a ‘SyntenyViewer’ to view genome synteny between different cucurbit species and an ‘RNA-Seq’ module to analyze and visualize gene expression profiles. Both tools have been packed as Tripal extension modules that can be adopted in other genomics databases developed using the Tripal system.

Powdery mildew is a serious disease of melon (Cucumis melo L.) worldwide. Twenty-two melon cultigens have been used to define 22 reported races of the pathogen Podosphaera xanthii (sect. Sphaerotheca) xanthii (Castag.) U. Braun & N. Shish. Comb. nov. [syn. Sphaerotheca fuliginea (Schlecht. ex Fr.) Poll.]. Discrepancies in the reactions of eight cultigens to populations of P. xanthii races 1 and 2 in California, Japan, and Spain revealed genetic differences among them that can be used to differentiate P. xanthii race 1 and 2 populations in these countries. Implicit in these results is the existence of previously unknown virulence factors in these populations of P. xanthii races 1 and 2 that permit designation of new races of P. xanthii on melon. Synthesis of these results with previous reports resulted in the identification of 28 putative races of P. xanthii on melon that include eight variants of race 1 and six variants of race 2. Six of the cultigens exhibited resistant blisters in response to heavy infection by P. xanthii in field and greenhouse tests.

Unique architectural phenotypes have the potential for increasing yield in commercial melon (Cucumis melo L.). Therefore, a generation means analysis was conducted to investigate the inheritance of architectural traits (days to anthesis, primary branch number, fruit number and weight, and average weight per fruit). Progeny () from a cross between US Department of Agriculture (USDA) line, USDA 846-1 (P 1 ) and ÔTopMarkÕ (P 2 ) were evaluated at Arlington (AR) and Hancock (HCK), Wisconsin in 2001. Significant (P £ 0.05) environment effects and genotype · environment interactions (G · E) analyses necessitated analysis by location. Significant differences (P £ 0.05) among parents and generations were observed for all traits, and the two parental lines differed significantly for primary branch number, fruit number and average weight per fruit. Additive gene effects were most important in governing primary branch number and fruit number per plant, while dominance and epistatic genetic effects mainly controlled days to anthesis, fruit weight per plant and average weight per fruit. Narrowsense heritabilities were 0.62 (AR) for days to anthesis, 0.71 (AR) and 0.76 (HCK) for primary branch number, 0.68 (AR) and 0.70 (HCK) for fruit weight per plant, 0.33 (AR) and 0.45 (HCK) for fruit weight per plant, and 0.06 (AR) and 0.79 (HCK) for average weight per fruit. Estimations of the least number of effective factors for primary branch number were relatively consistent at both AR (approx. 4) and HCK (approx. 2). Results suggest that introgression of yield-related genes from highly branched melon types (e.g. USDA 846-1) into US Western Shipping germplasm may aid in the development of high-yielding cultivars with concentrated fruit set suitable for machine and/or handharvesting operations.

No abstract