W232
Genome Variation Elucidates Evolution and Domestication of Fruit Ripening and Quality Traits in Watermelon

Date: Sunday, January 15, 2017
Time: 4:20 PM
Room: Pacific Salon 4-5 (2nd Floor)
Shaogui Guo , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Honghe Sun , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Yi Ren , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Jie Zhang , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Shouwei Tian , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Guoyi Gong , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Haiying Zhang , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Zhangjun Fei , Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Yong Xu , National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
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Watermelon is one of the most popular fruit crops worldwide. Unlike the modern sweet and crispy watermelon, fruit flesh of ancestral watermelon is hard, pale-coloured and bland. To get insight of the evolution and domestication scenario from the non-sweetness and pale-coloured ancestral watermelon to the sweet and bright-coloured cultivation, the genomes of 107 representative watermelon germplasm were comprehensively analyzed. Watermelon taxonomy controversy was clarified based on genome variation analysis. C. amarus may be a separated species evolved paralleling with C. lanatus. In further, watermelon phylogeny and evolution process were recurred. During the evolution step from wild watermelon C. colocynthis to semi wild watermelon C. lanatus subsp. mucosospermus, the regulation related function categories including histone acetylation regulation, translation regulation and gene expression regulation were enriched significantly. During the step from semi wild watermelon C. lanatus subsp. mucosospermus to dessert watermelon C. lanatus subsp. vulgaris, the fruit quality and flower development related function categories including raffinose family oligosaccharide biosynthesis, floral organ development and anther dehiscence were enriched. Important genome regions and candidate genes referring agricultural traits were further confirmed by Genome-Wide Association Studies and ultra high density SNP map based QTL mapping. Based on the ripen capability of the F1 hybrids derived from the cross between C. lanatus subsp. mucosospermus and C. lanatus subsp. vulgaris, C. lanatus subsp. mucosospermus can be classified into two subgroups. Comparison results of the subgroups indicated that several chromatin and histone modification related function categories were enriched significantly, including histone acetylation, histone modification, chromatin modification and chromatin organization. Regulator of chromosome condensation family protein, TraB family protein and PPR protein located in selective sweep regions, may contribute to the evolution of watermelon fruit ripening. These results provide a novel sight of evolution and domestication of Citrullus genus.
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