Gene List for Other Genera of Cucurbitaceae 2013

by Kyle M. VandenLangenberg and Todd C. Wehner

• Department of Horticultural Science
• North Carolina State University
• Raleigh, NC 27695-7609

Introduction

The Cucurbitaceae includes many important vegetable species, including cucumber, melon and watermelon. Those are major crop species originally from the Old World: cucumber from India; melon and watermelon from Africa (Wehner and Maynard, 2003). However, there are other important species originally from Africa such as gherkin (Cucumis anguria), African horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria); and species originally from India such as sponge gourd (Luffa spp.), Melothria (Melothria maderaspatana) and bitter melon (Momordica charantia), having fruit that are used for food, decoration, containers, utensils or sponges. The exception is Melothria, which has medicinal uses (Iman et al, 2006).

Gene List Update

The following list is the latest version of the gene list for the other genera of the Cucurbitaceae, those that are not covered in the other CGC gene lists. This gene list was originally organized and summarized by Robinson (1979, 1982). The list was subsequently updated by Taja and Wehner (2009). This current gene list provides an update of the known genes, with 27 total mutants grouped by species.

Researchers are encouraged to send reports of new genes, as well as seed samples of lines having the gene mutant to the gene curator (Mark G. Hutton), or the assistant curator (Thomas C. Andres). Please inform us of omissions or errors in the gene list. Scientists should consult the list as well as the rules of gene nomenclature for the Cucurbitaceae (Cucurbit Gene List Committee, 1982; Robinson et al., 1976) before choosing a gene name and symbol. Please choose a gene name and symbol with the fewest characters that describes the recessive mutant, and avoid use of duplicate gene names and symbols. The rules of gene nomenclature were adopted in order to provide guidelines for naming and symbolizing genes. Scientists are urged to contact members of the gene list committee regarding rules and gene symbols. The gene curators for other genera of the Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative are collecting seeds of the type lines for use by interested researchers, and would like to receive seed samples of any of the lines listed.

This gene list has been modified from previous lists in that we have made editorial corrections, and added genes not previously described: F1,2y and pia (Cucumisanguria), pm (Lagenaria siceraria), Rf-1 and Rf-2 (Luffa acutangula), Tlcy and Adgn (Luffa aegyptiaca or L. cylindrica).

Previous Gene Lists

• Robinson, 1979: 13 genes added, 13 genes total
• Robinson, 1982: 1 gene added, 14 genes total
• Taja and Wehner, 2008: 6 genes added, 20 genes total
• VandenLangenberg and Wehner, 2013: 7 genes added, 27 genes total

West Indian Gherkin (Cucumis anguria)

Six gene loci have been described so far for West Indian gherkin. A single dominant gene produces bitter fruit: Bt (Koch and Costa, 1991). Another dominant gene controls resistance to Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus: Cgm (den Nijs, 1982). Two loci control fruit spininess: S and P (Koch and Costa, 1991). A single dominant gene controls resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis race 1,2y: F1,2y (Matsumoto and Miyagi, 2012). The resistant type line was PI 320052. A single recessive gene controls alleviation of pollen-pistil incongruity: pia (Matsumoto and Miyagi, 2012).

African horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus)

Watermelon mosaic virus resistance in African horned melon or Kiwano is controlled by a single dominant gene Wmv (Provvidenti and Robinson, 1972). Another single dominant gene, Prsv controlled resistance to Papaya ringspot virus (Provvidenti and Gonsalves, 1982). The resistant type line was PI 292190, and the susceptible type line was Acc 2459.

Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)

Red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis) resistance is controlled by a single dominant gene Af (Vashishta and Choudhury, 1972). Different genes affect shape and color of the fruit in bottle gourd. The genotype bb produces bottle-shaped fruit, and BB produces disk-shaped fruit. The genotype rr produces round fruit shape that is also recessive to the genotype RR, with disk-shaped fruit. The gene db interacts with b to produce an F2 of 9 club: 3 round: 4 dumbbell-shaped fruit (Tyagi, 1976). Dark green fruit color is controlled by the genotype GG which is dominant to the genotype gg with light green fruit color (Tyagi, 1976). The genotype lb lb controls the light brown seed coat color, but it is recessive to the genotype Lb Lb with brown seed coat color (Tyagi, 1976).

Four normal-leaf parents (Pusa Naveen, PBOG 13, PBOG 22 and PBOG 61) were crossed with segmented-leaf parents (PBOG 54) of bottle gourd to study the inheritance of segmented leaf shape. Normal-leaf shape parents showed true breeding normal-leaf shape plants. However, the segmented-leaf parent (PBOG 54) surprisingly segregated in a ratio of 3 segmented: 1 normal-leaf plants. Moreover, F1 also segregated in 1 segmented: 1 normal leaf shape suggesting that the parental cultivar PBOG 54 was heterozygous for the leaf shape gene and the segmented leaf was dominant over normal type. The segregation in the backcrosses of 1 segmented: 1 normal-leaf type confirmed that a single dominant gene S is responsible for the segmented leaf shape character in bottle gourd (Akhilesh and Ram, 2006).

Powdery mildew resistance was reported by Wang et al., (2011) as being under the control of a single recessive gene. We suggest the gene symbol pm, with the recessive type line J083 as the source of resistance.

Luffa Gourd (Luffa spp.)

Luffa species (also spelled loofah) include luffa sponge gourd or smooth luffa (Luffa aegyptiaca or L. cylindrica), luffa ridge gourd or angled luffa (Luffa acutangula). The gynoecious gene g (Choudhury and Thakur, 1965) interacts with andromonoecious gene a to produce the following phenotypes: monoecious or trimonoecious (AA GG), andromonoecious (aa GG), gynoecious (AA gg), or hermaphroditic (aa gg) plants. A single dominant gene, Adgn, was reported by Singh et al., (2012) to control the expression of androgynous inflorescence in Luffa cylindrica. The landrace Androgyn-K was used to create three inbreds, and subsequent crosses with monoecious line NDSG-5 resulted in androgynous monoecious F1 offspring. The F2 and BC­1 segregation data suggested inheritance was under the control of a single dominant gene (Singh et al., 2012). Their report also indicated that Adgn may control the number of organs produced on vine nodes. Further research should be conducted to determine the relationship of Adgn to previously reported genes, including those that alter vine node organ number.

Two dominant genes restore male fertility in the presence of sterile cytoplasm in Luffa acutangula: Rf-1 and Rf-2 (Pradeepkumar et al., 2012).

A single dominant gene controls resistance to Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) in Luffa cylindrica. We suggest the gene symbol: Tlcv. Resistance sources include inbred lines DSG-6 and DSG-7 (Islam et al., 2010).

Melothria (Melothria medraspatana)

Small seed size (3.0 mm) is controlled by the gene s (Sing, 1972) that is recessive to SS for large seed size (3.6 mm). White seed coat color is controlled by the gene w. Homozygous recessive ww produces a white seed coat, heterozygous Ww produces an ash-colored seed coat, and homozygous dominant WW produces a black seed coat (Sing, 1972).

Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia)

Light brown seeds lbs (Ram et al., 2006) is inherited as a single gene that is recessive to dark brown seeds Lbs. Large seed size is controlled by the gene ls, which is recessive to small seed size (Srivastava and Nath, 1972). White immature fruit skin is inherited as a single gene w for white epicarp that is recessive to W for green epicarp (Srivastava and Nath, 1972).

Ram et al. (2006) reported that gynoecism in Gy263B was controlled by a single recessive gene gy-1. The gynoecious plants of Gy263B had significantly longer (2000 mm) vine length than their monoecious counterparts (1275 mm).

Table 1. The morphological and resistance genes of the miscellaneous genera and species of the Cucurbitaceae.

^z Suggested gene name according to the rules of gene nomenclature for the Cucurbitaceae (Robinson et al., 1976).

Literature Cited

1. Akhilesh, T. and H.H. Ram. 2006. Qualitative inheritance of segmented leaf shape in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.). Vegetable Science 33 (2): 117-121 (abstract).
2. Benzioni, A., V.M. Mendlinger and S. Huyskens. 1993. Germination, fruit development, yield and post harvest characteristics of C. metuliferus. In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.) New Crops. Wiley, New York. pp. 553-557.
3. Choudhury, B. and M.R. Thakur. 1965. Inheritance of sex forms in Luffa. Indian J. Genet. Pl. Breed. 25: 188-197.
4. den Nijs, A.P.M. 1982. Inheritance of resistance to cucumber green mottle virus (CGMV) in Cucumis anguria L. Cucurbit Genetics Coop. Rpt. 5: 56-57.
5. Iman, R.A., B.L. Priya, R. Chithra, K. Shalini, V. Sharon, D. Chamundeeswari and J. Vasantha. 2006. In vitro antiplatelet activity-guided fractionation of aerial parts of Melothria maderaspatana. Indian J. Pharm. Sci. 68: 668-670.
6. Islam, S., A.D. Munshi, B. Mandal, R. Kumar and T.K. Behera. 2010. Genetics of resistance in Luffa cylindrical Roem. against Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus. Euphytica 174: 83-89.
7. Koch, P.S. and C.P. daCosta. 1991. Inheritance of plant and fruit characters in gherkin. Horticultura Brasileira 9(2): 73-77 (abstract).
8. Matsumoto Y. and M. Miyagi. 2012. Chromosomal location and mode of inheritance of a gene conferring resistance to Fusarium wilt in Cucumis anguria L. J. Hort. Sci. & Biotech. 87(6): 539-544.
9. Matsumoto Y. and M. Miyagi. 2012. Mapping of a gene conferring alleviation of pollen-pistil incongruity found in an interspecific cross between Cucumis anguria L. and Cucumis melo L. (melon). Scientia Horticulturae 146: 81-85.
10. Morton, J.F. 1987. The horned cucumber alias "Kiwano" (Cucumis metuliferus, Cucurbitaceae). Econ. Botany 41: 325-326.
11. Pradeepkumar T., V.C. Hegade, D. Kannan, R. Sujatha, T.E. George and S. Nirmaladevi. 2012. Inheritance of male sterility and presence of dominant fertility restorer gene in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula (Roxb.) L.). Scientia Horticulturae 144: 60-64.
12. Provvidenti, R. and D. Gonsalves. 1982. Resistance to Papaya ringspot virus in Cucumis metuliferus and its relationship to resistance to Watermelon mosaic virus 1. J. Heredity 73(3): 239-240.
13. Provvidenti, R. and R.W. Robinson. 1972. Inheritance of resistance to Watermelon mosaic virus in Cucumis metuliferus. J. Hered. 68: 56-57.
14. Ram, D., S. Kumar, M. Singh, M. Rai and G. Kalloo. 2006. Inheritance of gynoecism in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.). J. Heredity 97(3): 294-295.
15. Robinson, R.W. 1979. New genes for the Cucurbitaceae. Cucurbit Genetics Coop. Rpt. 2: 49-53.
16. Robinson, R.W. 1982. Update of Cucurbit gene list and nomenclature rules. Cucurbit Genetics Coop. Rpt. 5: 62-66.
17. Sing, A.K. 1972. Inheritance of some seed characters in Melothria medraspatana (L.) Conz. Balwant Vidyapeeth J. Agr. Sci. Res. 14: 56-57.
18. Singh, S.P., A. Kumar, and D.K. Dubey. 2012. Occurrence of androgynous inflorescence in Luffa cylindrica exhibiting dominant monogenic inheritance. Proc. Xth EUCARPIA Meeting Genet. Breed. Cucurbitaceae (15-18 October 2012): 89-97.
19. Srivastava, V.K. and P. Nath. 1972. Inheritance of some qualitative characters in Momordica charantia L. Indian J. Hort. 29: 319-321.
20. Taja, M. and T.C. Wehner. 2009. Gene list for other genera of Cucurbitaceae 2008. Cucurbit Genetics Coop. Rpt. 31-32: 41-43.
21. Tyagi, I.D. 1976. Inheritance of some qualitative characters in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria Sandal). Indian J. Hort. 33: 78-82.
22. Vashishta, R.N. and B. Choudhury. 1972. Inheritance of resistance to red pumpkin beetle in muskmelon, bottle gourd and watermelon. Proc. 3rd Intern. Symposium Sub-Trop. Hort. 1: 75-81.
23. Wang, L., X. Wu, B. Wang, P. Xu and G. Li. 2011. SCAR marker linked to resistance gene of powdery mildew in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Strandl.] breeding line J083. J. Zhejiang Univ. 37(2): 119-124 (abstract).
24. Wehner, T.C. and D.N. Maynard. 2003. Cucumbers, melons, and other cucurbits. In: S.H. Katz (editor) Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Scribner & Sons, New York, 2014 p.
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