Journal of Taiwan Agricultural Research

Author:Jau-Yueh Wang and Min-Tze Wu*

Abstract:

    Determination of F₁ hybrids and their corresponding parental lines is an important quality control in the production of hybrid vegetable seeds. The grow-out trial (or grow out test; GOT) is a commonly used method for genetic purity test by seed enterprise. The trial consists of a number of morphological characters that can vary according to environmental conditions. Furthermore, checking these types of trials are time consuming, space demanding, and often do not allow the unequivocal identification of the genotypes. The objectives of this study were to generate the specific and co-dominant markers for discrimination parental lines and the subsequent assessment of hybrids in watermelon. Genomic DNA from the three F₁ hybrid cultivars and their parental lines were screened with 24 polymorphic core SSR (simple sequence repeat) primer pairs that developed from 22 commercial varieties. Based on the results, a key set of three SSR markers were selected for hybrid identification. As the validation time of GOT’s method could be more than two months, SSR analysis would be a useful tool for early testing the genetic purity in commercial hybrid seeds production.

Key words:Citrullus lanatus, Simple sequence repeat, Hybrids identification

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