Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.2
3.3
Journals
Agronomy
Special Issues
Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding for Variety Improvement
share announcement

Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding for Variety Improvement

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2023) | Viewed by 6317

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yupeng Pan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
Interests: genetic dissection of important traits; cucumber and melon germplasm utilization and genetic molecular breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xuewen Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
Interests: cucumber genetics; genomics; genetic improvement
Dr. Shi Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Interests: watermelon and melon genetics; genomics; breeding

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae family) are economically important vegetable crops that are grown worldwide, including cucumber, melon, watermelon, and pumpkin/squash. Other cucurbits such as bitter gourd, bottle gourd, wax gourd, luffa, and snake gourd are popular in many Asian and African countries. Cucurbit crops show extreme genetic diversity, especially for their colorful, and morphologically diverse fruits, and are important sources of nutrition and improved dietary health. In the past two decades, many genetic and genomic resources were developed, such as genome assemblies; molecular markers; genetic maps; newly mapped genes/QTLs; valuable germplasm and mutant identification; and newly developed or improved mapping strategies, genetic transformation, and gene-editing methods. These accumulated useful resources and knowledge provide great opportunities for the variety improvement and genetic breeding of cucurbit crops.  

This Special Issue offers an opportunity for both cucurbit researchers and breeders to share their current progress and innovations, and to disseminate their knowledge in the field of cucurbit genetics, genomics, traditional or molecular (MAS or gene editing) breeding, bio-informatics, biotechnologies, and phonemics. High-quality manuscripts including original research papers, review articles, and others addressing the above issues are all welcome.

Dr. Yupeng Pan
Dr. XueWen Xu
Dr. Shi Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cucurbit crops
  • gene/QTL mapping
  • association mapping
  • germplasm utilization
  • genetic improvement
  • marker-assistant selection
  • gene or genome editing
  • inheritance
  • breeding

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 3284 KiB  
Article
Isolation and Activity Analysis of Phytoene Synthase (ClPsy1) Gene Promoter of Canary-Yellow and Golden Flesh-Color Watermelon
by Yue Cao, Xufeng Fang, Shi Liu and Feishi Luan
Agronomy 2023, 13(4), 1080; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13041080 - 7 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1429
Abstract
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an economically important cucurbit crop. Its pulp is rich in antioxidant carotenoids, which confer a variety of flesh colors. ClPsy1 (Phytoene Synthase) is the rate-limiting enzyme for carotenoid synthesis; however, the promoter activity of ClPsy1 is still [...] Read more.
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an economically important cucurbit crop. Its pulp is rich in antioxidant carotenoids, which confer a variety of flesh colors. ClPsy1 (Phytoene Synthase) is the rate-limiting enzyme for carotenoid synthesis; however, the promoter activity of ClPsy1 is still unknown. In the present study, promoter sequences were isolated from four watermelon accessions: Cream of Saskatchewan pale yellow (COS), canary yellow flesh (PI 635597), golden flesh (PI 192938), and red flesh (LSW-177), all of which express ClPsy1 at extremely high levels. Sequence alignment and cis-element analysis disclosed six SNPs between the four lines all in COS, two of which (at the 598th and 1257th positions) caused MYC and MYB cis-element binding sequence variations, respectively. To confirm ClPsy1 gene promoter activity, full-length and deletion fragments of the promoter were constructed and connected to a β-D-glucosidase (GUS) vector and transferred into tomato fruits. GUS staining was performed to analyze the key segment of the promoter. The activity of the PI 192938 ClPsy1 full-length promoter exceeded that of COS. The deletion fragment from −1521 bp to −1043 bp exhibited strong promoter activity, and contained a MYB transcription factor-binding site mutation. We combined RNA-seq with qRT-PCR to analyze the gene expression pattern between the MYB transcription factor Cla97C10G196920 and ClPsy1 gene and found that Cla97C10G196920 (ClMYB21) showed the same expression trend with ClPsy1, which positively regulates carotenoid synthesis and metabolism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding for Variety Improvement)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 3226 KiB  
Article
Primary Mapping and Analysis of the CmARM14 Candidate Gene for Mature Fruit Abscission in Melon
by Dongyang Dai, Ling Wang, Junming Zhang, Haojie Qin, Huiying Liu and Yunyan Sheng
Agronomy 2022, 12(12), 3117; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12123117 - 8 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1330
Abstract
Mature fruit abscission (MFA) is an important trait in terms of both harvest and yield. MFA can affect the production and economic value of melon fruit. An F3 population segregating for a single gene and derived from a cross between line M2-10, [...] Read more.
Mature fruit abscission (MFA) is an important trait in terms of both harvest and yield. MFA can affect the production and economic value of melon fruit. An F3 population segregating for a single gene and derived from a cross between line M2-10, which shows no mature fruit abscission (None MFA), and the MFA line ZT00091 was used to map candidate genes. Specific length amplified fragment (SLAF) sequencing, in conjunction with bulked-segregant analysis (BSA), was used to map loci governing the natural fruit abscission of plants composing the F3-57 family. A candidate locus, mfa10.1, located on chromosome 10 between genomic positions 73,229 and 818,251, was obtained. An insertion-deletion (InDel) marker and 46 recombinant individuals were used to narrow the candidate region to within 35 kb at the genomic position of 650,203 to 685,250; this region included six candidate genes. qRT–PCR gene expression and gene sequence data showed that the CmARM14 gene, which encodes a RING-type E3 ubiquitin transferase (MELO3C012406), was a candidate for melon MFA. Subcellular localization observations revealed that the CmARM14 fusion protein was localized to the golgi apparatus. Taken together, these results provide a molecular basis for melon breeding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding for Variety Improvement)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 5468 KiB  
Article
Genome-Wide Identification and Molecular Evolution of the Magnesium Transporter (MGT) Gene Family in Citrullus lanatus and Cucumis sativus
by Parviz Heidari, Fatemeh Puresmaeli and Freddy Mora-Poblete
Agronomy 2022, 12(10), 2253; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12102253 - 21 Sep 2022
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 2684
Abstract
Magnesium transporters (MGTs) play a prominent role in the absorption, transportation, and storage of magnesium in plant cells. In the present study, MGT gene family members were identified and characterized into two species of Cucurbitaceae, including Cucumis sativus and Citrullus lanatus. Totals [...] Read more.
Magnesium transporters (MGTs) play a prominent role in the absorption, transportation, and storage of magnesium in plant cells. In the present study, MGT gene family members were identified and characterized into two species of Cucurbitaceae, including Cucumis sativus and Citrullus lanatus. Totals of 20 and 19 MGT genes were recognized in Citrullus lanatus and Cucumis sativus, respectively. According to their physicochemical properties, the members of each sub-class of MGTs in the species of Cucurbitaceae showed the close relationship. Proteins from NIPA class were identified as hydrophilic proteins with high stability. Based on phylogenetic analysis, MGT family members were classified into three groups, and NIPAs showed more diversity. Moreover, duplication events were not identified between the MGT genes in C. lanatus and C. sativus. According to pocket analysis, residues such as L, V, S, I, and A were frequently observed in the binding sites of MGT proteins in both studied species. The prediction of post-translation modifications revealed that MSR2 proteins have higher phosphorylation potentials than other sub-classes of MGT in both studied plants. The expression profile of MGTs showed that MGTs are more expressed in root tissues. In addition, MGTs showed differential expression in response to abiotic/biotic stresses as well as hormone application and NIPAs were more induced in response to stimuli in watermelon. The results of this study, as the primary work of MGT gene family, can be used in programs related to Cucurbitaceae breeding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding for Variety Improvement)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop