Watermelon research in Southern Africa, has predominantly observed the clear existence of the sweet watermelon and cow melon forms of watermelon, cultivated on farm and even some occurring in the wild. Molecular characterization of 48 watermelon accessions collected from National Genebank of Zimbabwe using 9 SSR markers generated a total of 49 putative alleles. The average number of alleles detected by each primer was 5.4. Analysis of molecular variance within and among accessions of watermelons revealed that only 39% of the total variation resides between these two groups (cow-melons and sweet watermelons), 24% between accession within groups and 37% within accessions. Multivariate analyses employed provide evidence of the existence of introgression between sweet water melons and cow melons, as reflected by some accessions of cow melons, clustering into a hybridogenous group. Most of watermelon accessions within the hybridogenous group [A (II)] were collected from drier communal areas, while those accessions within the cow melon group [A (I)] are mostly from research centers. The separation of cow melons into distinct groups could be indicative of a possible formation of an isolated evolutionary unit.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.