• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.164-173
• /
• 2016

To investigate the genetic basis of phenotypic differences, sequence variations were analyzed in 8 inbred watermelon lines by re-sequencing. The number of sequence variations differed depending on the chromosome. Only 12.9% of SNPs were found within genes, whereas the rest were detected in promoter or intergenic regions. SNP density analysis showed that there was a highly variable region at the end of chromosome 6, which is similar to previously published findings. However, this region with high SNP density did not show much variation between the lines. In contrast, highly conserved regions with a size of 6.5-10 Mb were found in chromosomes 10 and 11. Pathway analysis suggested that the DIMBOA (a natural antibiotic)-glucoside degradation pathway was significantly different between the lines, indicating that the eight lines may have different levels of pathogen resistance. Among the carbohydrate-related genes, the alpha-galactosidase gene was the most variable among the lines. Information from this study will be helpful in understanding the watermelon breeding process at the molecular level.