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The genetic characterization of Turkish watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) accessions using RAPD markers

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Abstract

Genetic diversity of the Turkish watermelon genetic resources was evaluated using different Citrullus species, wild relatives, foreign landraces, open pollinated (OP) and commercial hybrid cultivars by RAPD markers. The germplasm was consisted of 303 accessions collected from various geographical regions. Twenty-two of 35 RAPD primers generated a total of 241 reproducible bands, 146 (60.6%) of which were polymorphic. Based on the RAPD data the genetic similarity coefficients were calculated and the dendrogram was constructed using UPGMA (Unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average). Cluster analysis of the 303 accessions employing RAPD data resulted in a multi-branched dendrogram indicating that most of the Turkish accessions belonging to var. lanatus of Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum et Nakai were grouped together. Accessions of different Citrullus species and Praecitrullus fistulosus (Stocks) Pangalo formed distant clusters from C. lanatus var. lanatus. Among 303 accessions, a subset of 56 accessions was selected representing different groups and a second dendrogram was constructed. The genetic similarity coefficients (GS) within the Turkish accessions were ranged from 0.76 to 1.00 with 0.94 average indicating that they are closely related. Taken together, our results indicated that low genetic variability exist among the watermelon genetic resources collected from Turkey contrary to their remarkable phenotypic diversity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Council of Scientific and Technological Research of Turkey for the financial support (Project No: TOVAG 104O073). In addition, authors thank Dr. Sedat Serce for his kindly help for the statistical analyses of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Cukurova, Adana, Turkey

    Ilknur Solmaz, Nebahat Sari, Yildiz Aka-Kacar & N. Yesim Yalcin-Mendi

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  1. Ilknur Solmaz
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  2. Nebahat Sari
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  3. Yildiz Aka-Kacar
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  4. N. Yesim Yalcin-Mendi
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Correspondence to Nebahat Sari.

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Solmaz, I., Sari, N., Aka-Kacar, Y. et al. The genetic characterization of Turkish watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) accessions using RAPD markers. Genet Resour Crop Evol 57, 763–771 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-009-9515-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-009-9515-2

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