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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Charleston, South Carolina » Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #209160
Title: Interspecific Transferability of Watermelon EST-SSR Markers in Cucurbit Species

Author
item Levi, Amnon
item Wechter, William - Pat
item Davis, Angela
item KATZIR, N - ARO, ISRAEL
item TADMOR, K - ARO, ISRAEL
item Ling, Kai-Shu
item REDDY, U - WVSU

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/8/2007
Publication Date: 6/15/2007
Citation: Levi, A., Wechter, W.P., Davis, A.R., Katzir, N., Tadmor, K., Ling, K., Reddy, U. 2007. Interspecific Transferability of Watermelon EST-SSR Markers in Cucurbit Species. HortScience. 42:1012.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have facilitated the development of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers (termed EST-SSRs) in different plant species. Because EST-SSRs are derived from coding regions they might be more transferable through cross-amplification in related species than SSR markers generated from genomic DNA libraries. A cDNA library was constructed from mRNA isolated from watermelon flesh of the heirloom cultivar Illiniwake Red. Random cDNA clones (1,046) of the library were sequenced and assembled into 832 non-redundant ESTs, termed EST-unigenes. Of these 832 EST-unigenes, 179 contained simple sequence repeat motives (EST-SSRs). However, only 74 of these EST-SSRs were suitable for construction of primer pairs and for further analysis to identify polymorphism among watermelon heirloom cultivars. The EST-SSRs are being tested [in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments] for transferability in different cucurbit species, including Praecitrullus fistulosus, Cucumis melo, Cucumis sativus, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita moschata, and Lagenaria siceraria. This study provides information on watermelon EST-SSRs and their potential use in genetic analysis of different cucurbit species.