The Genes of Watermelon

Abstract

<jats:p>Watermelon [<jats:italic>Citrullus lanatus</jats:italic> (Thunb.) Matsum. &amp; Nakai] is a major vegetable crop in the world, accounting for 6.8% of the world area devoted to vegetable crops. Watermelon is a useful vegetable crop for genetic research because of its small genome size, and the many available gene mutants. The watermelon genes were originally organized and summarized in 1944, and have been expanded and updated periodically. However, the action of some watermelon genes has not been described clearly in some cases. Also, the interaction of multiple gene loci that control similar traits needs to be described more clearly. Finally, it is necessary to identify the inbred lines having each published gene mutant, for use as type lines in studies of gene action, allelism, and linkage. The objective of this work was to update the gene list, identify the cultivar or line having each gene mutant, and collect seeds of the lines for use by interested researchers. In addition, the gene descriptions were expanded and clarified, information on gene interactions was added, and errors in naming or citing previously described genes were corrected. New genes that have not previously been described (<jats:italic>cr, Ctr, dw-3, ms-2, Ti, ts and zym-FL</jats:italic>) were added to the list, for a total of 163 watermelon gene mutants.</jats:p>

Sequence-characterized amplified polymorphism markers for selecting rind stripe pattern in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.)

“…Watermelon varieties can be differentiated based on fruit shape, fruit size, rind pattern, fruit flesh color, and seed size and seed coat color, amongst other morphological characteristics (Guner and Wehner, 2003;Poole, 1944;Poole and Grimball, 1945). Various watermelon traits are preferred by consumers in different countries and geographical regions; Crimson-type seedless cultivars are popular in the USA and Europe, small sized ice-box-type fruits in Southeast Asia, Jubilee-type round fruits in China, and Jubilee-type broad elliptic fruits in South Korea (Park and Cho, 2012).…”

“…Rind types are divided by background rind color (light to dark) and foreground stripe pattern (solid to stripe) (Guner and Wehner, 2003). Foreground stripe rind patterns are diverse and well represented in the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV, http:// www.upov.int).…”

Genetic Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Cucurbits

“…For melon, Pitrat (1991) constructed a classic genetic map that consisted of 8 linkage groups with 23 markers (disease resistance, flower biology, and vegetative characters). Updated information on mapped genes conditioning resistance or morphological traits is provided by Pitrat (2002) for melon and Guner and Wehner (2003) for watermelon.…”

“…Future work should lead to developing more robust molecular markers for this purpose and for molecular cloning of these genes. Notes: All gene symbols are as suggested by Xie and Wehner (2001), Pitrat (2002), and Guner and Wehner (2003). If markers following a gene are in two rows and in the same linkage group from the same source, they are flanking the mapped gene.…”

Control of Cucurbit Viruses

“…Breeding for resistance still relies mainly upon germplasm evaluation and introgression of the resistance gene(s) into commercially acceptable cultivars (Lecoq, Moury, Desbiez, Palloix, & Pitrat, 2004;Moury, Fereres, Garcia-Arenal, & Lecoq, 2011). In many countries, systematic germplasm evaluations have been conducted both by public institutions and by private breeding companies, often in collaboration, which has led to the description of a number of virus-resistance genes in the major cucurbit crops (Call & Wehner, 2011;Dogimont, 2011;Guner & Wehner, 2003;Paris & Brown, 2004). Whenever an emerging virus is described in cucurbits, experimental protocols have to be developed in order to look again for resistance in germplasm resources.…”