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Shaping melons: agronomic and genetic characterization of QTLs that modify melon fruit morphology

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Abstract

The consistency of quantitative trait locus (QTL) effects among genetic backgrounds is a key factor for introgressing QTLs from initial mapping experiments into applied breeding programs. We have selected four QTLs (fs6.4, fw4.3, fw4.4 and fw8.1) involved in melon fruit morphology that had previously been detected in a collection of introgression lines derived from the cross between a Spanish cultivar, “Piel de Sapo,” and the Korean accession PI161375 (Songwan Charmi). Introgression lines harboring these QTLs were crossed with an array of melon inbred lines representative of the most important cultivar types. Hybrids of the introgression and inbred lines, with the appropriate controls, were evaluated in replicated agronomic trials. The effects of the QTLs were consistent among the different genetic backgrounds, demonstrating the utility of these QTLs for applied breeding programs in modifying melon fruit morphology. Three QTLs, fw4.4, fs6.4 and fs12.1 were subjected to further study in order to map them more accurately by substitution mapping using a new set of introgression lines with recombination events within the QTL chromosome region. The position of the QTLs was narrowed down to 36–5 cM, depending on the QTL. The results presented in the current study set the basis for the use of these QTLs in applied breeding programs and for the molecular characterization of the genes underlying them.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Angel Montejo, Antonio Ortigosa and Fuensanta García for their technical support. This work has been supported in part by grants AGL2006-12780-C02-01 and AGL2009-12698-C02-02 of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER, European Union). EM, IF-S, AE and MF were supported by predoctoral fellowships from AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya), Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA, Spain) and predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships from the Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica CSIC-IRTA-UAB (Spain), respectively. Semillas Fitó S. A. provided the elite inbred lines and also performed the crosses between introgression lines and inbreds.

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  1. IRTA, Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica CSIC-IRTA-UAB, Carretera de Cabrils Km 2, 08348, Cabrils (Barcelona), Spain

    Iria Fernandez-Silva, Eduard Moreno, Ali Essafi, Mohamed Fergany, Jordi Garcia-Mas, Ana Montserrat Martín-Hernandez & Antonio J. Monforte

  2. Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón, Apartado 727, 50080, Zaragoza, Spain

    Jose María Álvarez

  3. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV)-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación (CPI), Ed. 8E, C/Ingeniero Fausto Elio s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Antonio J. Monforte

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  1. Iria Fernandez-Silva
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  2. Eduard Moreno
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  3. Ali Essafi
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Correspondence to Antonio J. Monforte.

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Communicated by I. Paran.

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122_2010_1361_MOESM1_ESM.jpg

Snapshot of representative fruit from the recurrent parental PS and the NILs SC4-3, SC4-4, SC6-3, SC8-1, SC12-1 selected for the current study. The scale is shown on the left (JPEG 476 kb)

122_2010_1361_MOESM2_ESM.ppt

Neighbor-joining tree based on Nei’s genetic distances (Nei et al. 1983) calculated from SSR variation depicting the genetic relationships among selected the elite inbreds, “Amarillo” (AMA), “Cantaloup” (CAN), “Galia” (GAL), “Piel de Sapo” (PS, PS2, PS3) and “Vedrantais” (VED) and an array of reference genotypes: PI 124112 (INB), PI 385966 (EIN), PI 161375 (SC), Ames24297 (TRI) and PI 435288 (FLEX). The bar on the bottom indicates the genetic distance scale (PPT 37 kb)

122_2010_1361_MOESM3_ESM.jpg

Snapshot of representative fruit from the hybrids between the recurrent parental "Piel de Sapo" (PS) and the elite inbreds "Amarillo" (AMA), "Cantaloup" (CAN), "Galia" (GAL), "Piel de Sapo" (PS2, PS3) and "Vedrantais" (VED). The scale is shown on the bottm to the right (JPEG 2,220 kb)

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Fernandez-Silva, I., Moreno, E., Essafi, A. et al. Shaping melons: agronomic and genetic characterization of QTLs that modify melon fruit morphology. Theor Appl Genet 121, 931–940 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-010-1361-2

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