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Title: EST-SSRs of Watermelon (Citrullus sp.) Useful in Assessing Genetic Diversity among Lagenaria Siceraria Accessions

Author
item Levi, Amnon
item Ling, Kai-Shu
item Davis, Angela

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/8/2007
Publication Date: 1/11/2008
Citation: Levi, A., Ling, K., Davis, A.R. 2008. Est-ssrs of watermelon (citrullus sp.) useful in assessing genetic diversity among lagenaria siceraria accessions. Plant and Animal Genome XVI Conference, P643.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) facilitated the development of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers (termed EST-SSRs) in different plant species. EST-SSRs represent coding regions that are known to be more conserved than genomic regions represented by SSR markers generated from genomic DNA libraries. Thus, EST-SSRs might be more transferable through cross-amplification in related species than SSR markers. A cDNA library was constructed from mRNA isolated from watermelon (Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus) fruit of the heirloom cultivar "Illiniwake Red". Seventy-four watermelon EST-SSRs were tested for polymorphism among closely related watermelon cultivars, and are being tested [in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments] for transferability in different cucurbit species, focusing on the bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria. The EST-SSRs revealed sufficient polymorphism among Lagenaria siceraria accessions collected throughout the world and elucidates its phylogenetic relationships with other Cucurbit species, including Citrullus sp., Cucurbita sp., and Cucumis sp. This study provides information on the potential use of watermelon EST-SSRs in genetic analysis of cucurbit species.