Genetic Variation among Cucurbita pepo Accessions Varying in Seed Nutrition and Seed Size - American Journal of Plant Sciences

AJPS > Vol.10 No.9, September 2019

Genetic Variation among Cucurbita pepo Accessions Varying in Seed Nutrition and Seed Size ()

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Download as PDF (Size: 1796KB) PP. 1536-1547

DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2019.109109 743 Downloads 1,904 Views Citations

Author(s)

Geoffrey Meru, Dayana Leyva, Vincent Michael, Riphine Mainviel, Marie Dorval, Yuqing Fu

Affiliation(s)

Horticultural Sciences Department and Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead, FL, USA.

ABSTRACT

Pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo L.) is a nutritionally valuable food and a significant source of income globally. Pumpkin seeds are rich in oil, protein, unsaturated fatty acids and tocopherols, which are associated with improved human health. Understanding the genetic diversity among pumpkin accessions varying in seed nutrition traits is necessary for designing sound breeding strategies for developing superior cultivars. In the current study, 26 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers were used to assess genetic relatedness among 29 C. pepo accessions varying in seed oil, seed protein, seed-coat phenotype, seed size and fatty acid composition. The SSR markers revealed 102 alleles averaging 3.92 alleles per loci and mean polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.44. Eleven of the markers had a PIC of ≥0.5. Ward dendrogram and principle component analysis based on seed traits grouped the genotypes into two major clusters corresponding to subspecies pepo and texana, with all the reduced-hull accessions grouping within the former. Collectively, this data suggests wide phenotypic (seed traits) and genotypic variation within C. pepo that may be exploited to develop superior reduced-hull cultivars.

KEYWORDS

Pumpkin, Seed Oil, Seed Protein, Fatty Acid Composition, Seed Size, SSR Markers, DNA, Alleles, Phylogenetic Tree, Genetic Distance

Share and Cite:

Meru, G. , Leyva, D. , Michael, V. , Mainviel, R. , Dorval, M. and Fu, Y. (2019) Genetic Variation among Cucurbita pepo Accessions Varying in Seed Nutrition and Seed Size. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 10, 1536-1547. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2019.109109.

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