Genome of 'Charleston Gray', the principal American watermelon cultivar, and genetic characterization of 1,365 accessions in the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System watermelon collection.

ABSTRACT: Years of selection for desirable fruit quality traits in dessert watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) has resulted in a narrow genetic base in modern cultivars. Development of novel genomic and genetic resources offers great potential to expand genetic diversity and improve important traits in watermelon. Here, we report a high-quality genome sequence of watermelon cultivar 'Charleston Gray', a principal American dessert watermelon, to complement the existing reference genome from '97103', an East Asian cultivar. Comparative analyses between genomes of 'Charleston Gray' and '97103' revealed genomic variants that may underlie phenotypic differences between the two cultivars. We then genotyped 1365 watermelon plant introduction (PI) lines maintained at the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System usin

SUBMITTER: Wu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6835170 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature