The Genes of Watermelon

By N. Guner, T. C. Wehner. 2004

95 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai) is a major vegetable crop in the world, accounting for 6.8% of the world area devoted to vegetable crops. Wa- termelon 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 clarifi ed, 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 (cr, Ctr, dw-3, ms-2, Ti, ts and zym-FL) were added to the list, for a total of 163 watermelon gene mutants. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai) is a major cucurbit crop that accounts for 6.8% of the world area devoted to vegetable crops (FAO, 2002). Watermelon is grown for its fl eshy, juicy, and sweet fruit. Mostly eaten fresh, they provide a delicious and refreshing dessert especially in hot weather. The watermelon has high lycopene content in the red-fl eshed cultivars: 60% more than tomato. Lycopene has been classifi ed as use- ful in the human diet for prevention of heart attacks and certain types of cancer. Watermelon is native to central Africa where it was domesticated as a source of water, a staple food crop, and an animal feed. It was cultivated in Africa and the Middle East for >4000 years, then introduced to China around 900 AD, and fi nally brought to the New World in the 1500s. There are 1.3 million ha of watermelon grown in the world, with China and the Middle Eastern countries the major consumers. China is the largest watermelon producer, with 68.9% of the total production. The other major watermelon producing countries are Turkey, Iran, Egypt, United States, Mexico, and Korea (FAO, 2002). In the United States, watermelon is used fresh as a dessert, or in salads. U.S. production is concentrated in Florida, California, Texas, and Georgia (USDA, 2002), increasing from 1.2 Mt in 1980 to 3.9 Mt in 2002, with a farm value of $329 million (USDA, 2002). Watermelon is a useful crop species for genetic research because of its small genome size, and the many available gene mutants. Genome size of watermelon is 424 million base pairs. DNA sequence analysis revealed high conservation useful for comparative genomic analysis with other plant species, as well as within the Cucurbitaceae. Like some of the other cultivated cucurbits, watermelon

Subfields: Genetics, Plant Science

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