Horticulturae, Vol. 11, Pages 1087: Construction and Phenotypic Characterization of a Recombination Inbred Line (RIL) Population from a Melo-agrestis Melon Hybrid

Horticulturae doi: 10.3390/horticulturae11091087

Authors:
He Liu
Jianquan Wang
Shoujun Cao
Yongjie Guo
Qinghua Shi
Xiaoyu Yang

Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is an economically important horticultural crop worldwide, while its production is continuously endangered by powdery mildew (PM), a fungal disease mainly caused by Podosphaera xanthii, due to the insufficiency of disease resistant germplasms. Here, a melon recombinant inbred line (RIL) population that consisted of 188 independent individuals was obtained through the crossing of ‘SN-1’ (C. melon L. ssp. melo) and ‘YJM’ (C. melon L. ssp. agrestis), two parents with contrasting PM resistance, followed by 7-round selfings. Comprehensive phenotypic investigation revealed substantial variations in key agronomic traits among these RILs, such as stem diameters of 3.7~12.6 mm and internode lengths of 1.6~12.2 cm at the anthesis stage, as well as peduncle lengths of 0.5~9.5 cm and soluble solid content of 1.6~17.4% at the maturation stage. Particularly, 95 RILs, of which 60 and 35 belonged to thin-peel and netted types, respectively, were identified to be highly resistant to P. xnathii infection, providing new germplasms for melon improvement. Altogether, the generation of this melo-agrestis RIL population, together with the phenotypic observations, lays a solid foundation for mechanistic investigation of the traits with economic importance and could contribute to future breeding programs of melon cultivars with PM resistance.

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He Liu www.mdpi.com