Table Of ContentPlant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models 20
Rebecca Grumet
Nurit Katzir
Jordi Garcia-Mas Editors
Genetics and
Genomics of
Cucurbitaceae
Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models
Volume 20
Series Editor
Richard A. Jorgensen
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7397
Rebecca Grumet • Nurit Katzir • Jordi Garcia-Mas
Editors
Genetics and Genomics of
Cucurbitaceae
Editors
Rebecca Grumet Nurit Katzir
Michigan State University Agricultural Research Organization
East Lansing, Michigan Newe Ya’ar Research Center
USA Ramat Yishay
Israel
Jordi Garcia-Mas
Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia
Agroalimentàries (IRTA)
Bellaterra, Barcelona
Spain
ISSN 2363-9601 ISSN 2363-961X (electronic)
Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models
ISBN 978-3-319-49330-5 ISBN 978-3-319-49332-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-49332-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017950169
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Preface
The twenty-first century is a golden age for genetics. Massively increasing DNA
sequence information and sophisticated bioinformatic capacity at exponentially
decreasing cost allow for a world of knowledge that is no longer limited to model
species. Members of the Cucurbitaceae family are among the beneficiaries of these
technological gains. The Cucurbitaceae, often referred to as “cucurbits,” are proba-
bly best known for their large (sometimes extremely large), colorful, and morpho-
logically variable fruits. The most economically important crops are watermelon
(Citrullus lanatus), melon (Cucumis melo), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), and vari-
ous squashes and pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo, maxima, and moschata), which are
produced in widely diverse forms throughout the world. Depending on the specific
crop and type, they can be consumed as vegetable or dessert, and in some cases,
especially for various squashes and pumpkin, can serve as mainstays of the diet.
Additional cultivated crops include bitter, bottle, wax, snake sponge, and ridge
gourds, which are primarily cultivated in southern and southeastern Asia. Seeds of
cucurbit crops also can be an important source of nutrition. In addition, certain
cucurbit species are noted for medicinal properties, and gourd shells have historical
uses as containers and musical instruments.
Several genomic initiatives throughout the world are exploring the genetics and
genomics of these crops. Genetic features, including diploid genomes and relatively
small genome size (~367, 454, 450, and 400 Mbp for cucumber, melon, water-
melon, and squash, respectively), facilitate these efforts, and close genetic relation-
ships allow for synergistic approaches. Over the course of the past decade draft
genome sequences have been assembled for cucumber, melon, and watermelon;
assemblies of Cucurbita species are in progress. As would be expected, a major sec-
tion of “Genetics and Genomics of the Cucurbitaceae” is devoted to description of
cucurbit genomes and available genomic resources.
Of course genomic information does not exist in a vacuum and must be inter-
preted within the context of the crop or species and its agronomic, geographic, and
evolutionary relationships. The Cucurbitaceae family contains approximately 1000
species, with origins tracing to Southeast Asia prior to subsequent distribution and
diversification in Africa and South America. From this great diversity, a small num-
v
vi Preface
ber were domesticated and carried to current crop status. Over the past century, the
most extensively cultivated cucurbits have been greatly improved by plant breeders
using conventional plant breeding techniques to increase productivity, yield, fruit
size, and quality. This volume provides an overview of use of cucurbits and their
evolutionary relationships and explores the genetic resources for the cucurbit crops.
Much current effort in each of the crops is devoted to incorporation of resistance to
critical diseases for which germplasm collections around the world serve as invalu-
able, critical resources. Looking forward, molecular breeding approaches facilitated
by genomic advances are expected to play an increasing role in facilitating crop
improvement, including introgression of novel resistance alleles along with other
desirable traits.
Finally, the cucurbits are especially noteworthy for several biological features
such as unique phloem structure, highly flexible sex expression patterns, extensively
diverse fruit size, shape, colors and patterns, and delicious flavors and aromas.
Increasing genomic tools and genetic analyses are making major contributions to
our understanding of the fundamental bases for these biological phenomena. Thus,
collectively, “Genetics and Genomics of the Cucurbitaceae” explores the genetic
diversity of cucurbit crops, the current state of knowledge of cucurbit genomics, and
evolving applications of genetics and genomics for improvement of cucurbit crops
and understanding of cucurbit growth, development, and adaptation to their
environments.
Contents
Cultivation and Uses of Cucurbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
James D. McCreight
Phylogeny and Evolution of the Cucurbitaceae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Susanne S. Renner and Hanno Schaefer
Melon Genetic Resources: Phenotypic Diversity
and Horticultural Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Michel Pitrat
Genetic Resources of Cucumber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Rachel P. Naegele and Todd C. Wehner
Genetic Resources of Watermelon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Amnon Levi, Robert Jarret, Shaker Kousik, W. Patrick Wechter, Padma Nimmakayala,
and Umesh K. Reddy
Genetic Resources of Pumpkins and Squash, Cucurbita spp. . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Harry S. Paris
Gourds: Bitter, Bottle, Wax, Snake, Sponge and Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Narinder P.S. Dhillon, Supannika Sanguansil, Sheo Pujan Singh,
Mohammed Abu Taher Masud, Prashant Kumar, Latchumi Kanthan Bharathi,
Halit Yetişir, Rukui Huang, Doan Xuan Canh, and James D. McCreight
The Melon Genome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Josep Casacuberta, Pere Puigdomènech, and Jordi Garcia-Mas
The Cucumber Genome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Yiqun Weng
The Watermelon Genome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Xu Yong and Shaogui Guo
Genetics and Genomics of Cucurbita spp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
J. Montero-Pau, C. Esteras, J. Blanca, P. Ziarsolo, J. Cañizares,
and B. Picó
vii
viii Contents
Comparative Genomics of the Cucurbitaceae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Padma Nimmakayala, Thangasamy Saminathan, Venkata Lakshmi Abburi,
Lav Kumar Yadav, Yan Tomason, Amnon Levi, Yiqun Weng, and Umesh K. Reddy
Organellar Genomes of the Cucurbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Michael J. Havey
Databases and Bioinformatics for Cucurbit Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Yang Bai, Zhonghua Zhang, and Zhangjun Fei
Genetic Mapping of Complex Traits in Cucurbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
María José Gonzalo and Antonio J. Monforte
Phloem Biology of the Cucurbitaceae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Robert Turgeon
Sex Determination in Cucumis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Natalia Yaneth Rodriguez-Granados, Afef Lemhemdi, Fadi Abou Choucha,
David Latrasse, Moussa Benhamed, Adnane Boualem, and Abdelhafid Bendahmane
Genomic Analysis of Cucurbit Fruit Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Rebecca Grumet and Marivi Colle
Fruit Ripening in Melon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Ryoichi Yano and Hiroshi Ezura
Genomic Aspects of Melon Fruit Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Amit Gur, Itay Gonda, Vitaly Portnoy, Galil Tzuri, Noam Chayut, Shahar Cohen,
Yelena Yeselson, Ayala Meir, Einat Bar, Rachel Davidovitz-Rikanati, Uzi Saar,
Harry S. Paris, Joseph Burger, Yaakov Tadmor, Efraim Lewinsohn,
Arthur A. Schaffer, and Nurit Katzir
Cucurbit Genetics and Genomics: A Look to the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Rebecca Grumet, Jordi Garcia-Mas, and Nurit Katzir
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Contributors
Venkata Lakshmi Abburi Department of Biology, Gus R. Douglass Institute,
West Virginia State University, Institute, WV, USA
Yang Bai Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Einat Bar Center for the Genetic Enhancement of Cucurbit Fruit Quality,
Department of Vegetable Research, Newe Ya‘ar Research Center, Agricultural
Research Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel
Moussa Benhamed Institute of Plant Sciences Paris Saclay IPS2, CNRS, INRA,
Université Paris-Sud, Université Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay IPS2, Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris-Cité,
Orsay, France
Latchumi Kanthan Bharathi Central Horticultural Experiment Station,
Regional Station of Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, I.C.A.R., Aiginia,
Dumduma, Bhubaneswar, India
J. Blanca Institute for the Conservation and Improvement of Agricultural,
Biodiversity (COMAV), Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Joseph Burger Center for the Genetic Enhancement of Cucurbit Fruit Quality,
Department of Vegetable Research, Newe Ya‘ar Research Center, Agricultural
Research Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel
Josep Casacuberta Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics CSIC-IRTA-
UAB-UB, Barcelona, Spain
Doan Xuan Canh Horticulture Division, Field Crops Research Institute, Lien
Hong, GiaLoc, Vietnam
J. Cañizares Institute for the Conservation and Improvement of Agricultural,
Biodiversity (COMAV), Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
ix
x Contributors
Noam Chayut Center for the Genetic Enhancement of Cucurbit Fruit Quality,
Department of Vegetable Research, Newe Ya‘ar Research Center, Agricultural
Research Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel
Fadi Abou Choucha Institute of Plant Sciences Paris Saclay IPS2, CNRS,
INRA, Université Paris-Sud, Université Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay,
France
Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay IPS2, Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris-Cité,
Orsay, France
Shahar Cohen Center for the Genetic Enhancement of Cucurbit Fruit Quality,
Department of Vegetable Research, Volcani Center, Agricultural Research
Organization, Rishon Le-Ziyyon, Israel
Marivi Colle Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI, USA
Rachel Davidovitz-Rikanati Center for the Genetic Enhancement of Cucurbit
Fruit Quality, Department of Vegetable Research, Newe Ya‘ar Research Center,
Agricultural Research Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel
Narinder P.S. Dhillon World Vegetable Center East and Southeast Asia/Oceania,
Kasetsart University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
C. Esteras Institute for the Conservation and Improvement of Agricultural
Biodiversity (COMAV), Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Hiroshi Ezura Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University
of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Zhangjun Fei Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Robert W. Holley
Center for Agriculture and Health, Ithaca, NY, USA
Jordi Garcia-Mas Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics CSIC-IRTA-
UAB-UB, Barcelona, Spain
Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Barcelona, Spain
Itay Gonda Center for the Genetic Enhancement of Cucurbit Fruit Quality,
Department of Vegetable Research, Newe Ya‘ar Research Center, Agricultural
Research Organization, Ramat Yishay, Israel
María José Gonzalo Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas
(IBMCP) UPV-CSIC, Valencia, Spain
Rebecca Grumet Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI, USA
Shaogui Guo National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing
Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Key Laboratory of Biology and
Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops (North China), Beijing, China
