Zhang Mingfang's team in the College of Agriculture discovered the key genes that control the strong root system of watermelon

Roots are the main organs through which plants derive water and nutrients from nature and are the first line of defense

The economic yield of cultivated watermelon is high, the water demand of the whole growth period is huge, and the ability of the root to absorb nutrients is closely related

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The study used wild-fed watermelon with strong roots and cultivated watermelon with weak roots to construct genetic populations, combined with high-throughput sequencing technology and single-plant chromosomal fragment source analysis to gradually narrow the candidate interval, and finally several candidate genes were locked to contain a key gene for ethylene synthesis, ACS7 (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Rapid and accurate localization of the functional gene of the taproot length of watermelon

Figure 3 Chemical genetics methods verify the function of the nominator length candidate gene

Further using the molecular markers developed by ACS7 gene, more than 200 watermelon germplasm resources were typed and analyzed, and only a strong ACS7 allele was found in a few wild watermelon germplasm resources, and only one short root allele was contained in allegories

Figure 4 ACS allele variation determines watermelon root length phenotype differences

The study successfully retrieved the lost "strong root" gene from the cultivated watermelon ancestor species- feed watermelon, and excavated the key genes that control the strong root system, which provided an important target gene

Recently, the results were published in the internationally renowned academic journal Theoretical & Applied Genetics, with Ahmed Mahmoud, a doctoral student in the School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, as the first author, and Associate Professor Hu Zhongyuan and Professor Zhang Mingfang as the co-corresponding authors

Original link: https://doi.