• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.869-876
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• 2015

Wild relative species of domesticated crops are useful genetic resources for improving agronomic traits. Cytogenetic investigations based on chromosome composition provide insight into basic genetic and genomic characteristics of a species that can be exploited in a breeding program. Here, we used FISH analysis to characterize the ploidy level, chromosome constitution, and genomic distribution o f 5S and 4 5S r ibosomal DNA (rDNA) in four wild Cucurbitaceae species, namely, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Mansf. var. citroides L. H. Bailey (2n = 22), Melothria japonica Maxim. (2n = 22), Sicyos angulatus L. (2n = 24), and Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim. (2n = 66, 88, 110 cytotypes), collected in different areas of Korea. All species were diploids, except for T. kirilowii, which included hexa-, octa-, and decaploid cytotypes (2n = 6x = 66, 8x = 88, and 10x = 110). All species have small metaphase chromosomes in the range of $2-5{\mu}m$. The 45S rDNA signals were localized distally compared to the 5S rDNA. C. lanatus var. citroides and M. japonica showed one and two loci of 45S and 5S rDNA, respectively, with co-localization of rDNA signals in one M. japonica chromosome. S. angulatus showed two co-localized signals of 5S and 45S rDNA loci. The hexaploid T. kirilowii cytotype showed five signals each for 45S and 5S rDNA, with three being co-localized. This is the first report of hexaploid and decaploid cytotypes in T. kirilowii. These results will be useful in future Cucurbitaceae breeding programs.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2015

This study was performed to analyze genetic relationships of the four major cucurbitaceous crops including watermelon, melon, cucumber, and squash/pumpkin. Among 120 EST-SSR primer sets selected from the International Cucurbit Genomics Initiative (ICuGI) database, PCR was successful for 51 (49.17%) primer sets and 49 (40.8%) primer sets showed polymorphisms among eight Cucurbitaceae accessions. A total of 382 allele-specific PCR bands were produced by 49 EST-SSR primers from 24 Cucurbitaceae accessions and used for analysis of pairwise similarity and dendrogram construction. Assessment of the genetic relationships resulted in similarity indexes ranging from 0.01 to 0.85. In the dendrogram, 24 Cucurbitaceae accessions were classified into two major groups (Clade I and II) and 8 subgroups. Clade I comprised two subgroups, Clade I-1 for watermelon accessions [I-1a and I-1b-2: three wild-type watermelons (Citrullus lanatus var. citroides Mats. & Nakai), I-1b-1: six watermelon cultivars (Citrullus lanatus var. vulgaris S chrad.)] a nd C lade I -2 for melon and cucumber accessions [I-2a-1 : 4 melon cultivars(Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis Naudin.), I-2a-2: oriental melon cultivars (Cucumis melo var. conomon Makino.), and I-2b: five cucumber cultivars (Cucumis sativus L.)]. Squash and pumpkin accessions composed Clade II {II-1: two squash/ pumpkin cultivars [Cucurbita moschata (Duch. ex Lam.)/Duch. & Poir. and Cucurbita maxima Duch.] and II-2: two squash/pumpkin cultivars, Cucurbita pepo L./Cucurbita ficifolia Bouche.}. These results were in accordance with previously reported classification of Cucurbitaceae species, indicating that watermelon EST-SSRs show a high level of marker transferability and should be useful for genetic study in other cucurbit crops.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.309-314
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• 2014

A total of 67 watermelon accessions which include 37 accessions from Korean and 27 accessions from Turkish germplasm and 3 accessions of other related species from USA were investigated for morphological characteristics. The UPOV descriptor list for 56 characters (6 seedlings, 4 plants, 11 leaves, 5 flowers, 23 fruits and 7 seeds) was used in characterization. In addition, eight quantitative characters, hypocotyl length, cotyledon width, cotyledon length, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit width, thickness of outer layer of pericarp and soluble solid content were also measured. The 56 qualitatively scored characters were analyzed by principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) while the eight quantitative ones were subjected to principle component analysis (PCA). Morphological characterization result demonstrated that the accessions displayed high morphological diversity(how much percent?). A high level of phenotypic diversity was observed from the results of morphological characterization. However, plant growth habit and leaf blade flecking showed constant characters for all of the accessions. The Korean and Turkish watermelon genotypes are diverse groups and can be separated by both multivariate analysis of morphological characters although the grouping was more apparent in PCoS results.