Characterization of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) accessions collected from Turkey for morphological traits

Abstract

In this study, the Turkish watermelon genetic resources were collected in 2004 and morphologically characterized in 2005. The collection comprising of traditional cultivars and local accessions were collected from 15 different provinces of Southeastern Anatolia, Aegean, Marmara-Thrace, Middle Anatolia and Mediterranean regions of Turkey where local watermelon types are widely grown. A total of 134 accessions were characterized morphologically according to UPOV descriptor list for 56 qualitative characters (6 seedling, 4 plant, 11 leaf, 5 flower, 23 fruit and 7 seed) and morphologic relatedness were examined. Additionally, 22 quantitative characters were also measured. Our results indicated that the accessions studied have a great deal of variation for most of the morphological traits. The accessions were divided into five different groups according to principle component analysis. However, the geographical origin was not a great source for grouping.

Agrobiodiversity in Cucurbita spp. landraces collected in Rio de Janeiro assessed by molecular markers

“…The utilization of imported seeds of narrow genetic basis by the producers may endanger the existing variability. The same situation is being reported for cucurbits species, such as the watermelon germplasm in Turkey, where modern varieties are replacing local varieties due to the need of increasing profits, leading to a worry about the extinction of these genetic resources (Solmaz and Sart 2009). Also, the same concern was verified related to Lagenaria siceraria by Yetisir et al (2008), which verified a decrease on the variability found in this another cucurbit species.…”

The genetic characterization of Turkish watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) accessions using RAPD markers

“…As well as its' location, overlapping the Near Eastern and Mediteraanean Vavilovian centres of plant diversity makes Turkey significant in terms of plant genetic resources (Küçük et al 2002). However, some are not available at the moment, Turkey possesses precious watermelon landraces in different ecological regions (Solmaz and Sari 2009). Genetic resources are valuable reservoirs of potentially useful genes and can be beneficial in breeding studies for the future needs.…”

Morphological characterization of Hungarian and Turkish watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. et Nakai) genetic resources

“…Although Turkey is not the origin of watermelon, a wide range of diversity has been observed among Turkish genetic resources (Huh et al 2008;Solmaz and Sari 2009).…”