Gone Global: Familiar and Exotic Cucurbits Have Asian Origins

McCreight, James D.; Staub, Jack E.; Wehner, Todd C.; Dhillon, N.S.

doi:10.21273/hortsci.48.9.1078

Cited by 32 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Four hypotheses have been proposed for the origin of the watermelon: First, that it descends from the northern African colocynth ( C. colocynthis ; Singh, ; Sain et al ., ; McCreight et al ., ). Second, that it derives from the South African citron melon, C. amarus (Robinson & Decker‐Walters, ; Maynard & Maynard, ; Rubatsky, ).…”

Section: Time and Place Of Domesticationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology

Chomicki

Schaefer

Renner³

2019

New Phytologist

188

124

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Summary Some of the World's most valuable crops, including watermelon, honey melon, cucumber, squash, zucchini and pumpkin, belong to the family Cucurbitaceae. We review insights on their domestication from new phylogenies, archaeology and genomic studies. Ancestral state estimation on the most complete Cucurbitaceae phylogeny to date suggests that an annual life cycle may have contributed to domestication. Domestication started c. 11 000 years ago in the New World and Asia, and apparently more recently in Africa. Some cucurbit crops were domesticated only once, others multiple times (e.g. melon from different Asian and African populations). Most wild cucurbit fruits are bitter and nonpalatable to humans, and nonbitterness of the pulp apparently was a trait favoured early during domestication, with genomic data showing how bitterness loss was achieved convergently. The genetic pathways underlying lycopene accumulation, red or orange pulp colour, and fruit size and shape are only just beginning to be understood. The study of cucurbit domestication in recent years has benefitted from the increasing integration of archaeological and genomic data with insights from herbarium collections, the most efficient way to understand species’ natural geographic ranges and climate adaptations.

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Section: Time and Place Of Domesticationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology

Chomicki

Schaefer

Renner³

2019

New Phytologist

188

124

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“…From the botanical point of view, melon is one of the most diverse species of vegetables. For example, weight of Central Asian (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) melon fruit ranges from 0.5 to 17.9 kg with sugar levels that can reach 25% (McCreight et al, 2013). Such morphological diversity is conditioned by molecular diversity (Malik et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cucumis melo endornavirus: Genome organization, host range and co-divergence with the host

et al. 2016

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A high molecular weight dsRNA was isolated from a Cucumis melo L. plant (referred to as 'CL01') of an unknown cultivar and completely sequenced. Sequence analyses showed that dsRNA is associated with an endornavirus for which a name Cucumis melo endornavirus (CmEV) is proposed. The genome of CmEV-CL01 consists of 15,078 nt, contains a single, 4939 codons-long ORF and terminates with a stretch of 10 cytosine residues. Comparisons of the putative CmEV-encoded polyprotein with available references in protein databases revealed a unique genome organization characterized by the presence of the following domains: viral helicase Superfamily 1 (Hel-1), three glucosyltransferases (doublet of putative capsular polysaccharide synthesis proteins and a putative C_28_Glycosyltransferase), and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). The presence of three glycome-related domains of different origin makes the genome organization of CmEV unique among endornaviruses. Phylogenetic analyses of viral RdRp domains showed that CmEV belongs to a specific lineage within the family Endornaviridae made exclusively of plant-infecting endornaviruses. An RT-PCR based survey demonstrated high incidence of CmEV among melon germplasm accession (>87% of tested samples). Analyses of partial genome sequences of CmEV isolates from 26 different melon genotypes suggest fine-tuned virus adaptation and co-divergence with the host. Finally, results of the present study revealed that CmEV is present in plants belonging to three different genera in the family Cucurbitaceae. Such diverse host range is unreported for known endornaviruses and suggests a long history of CmEV association with cucurbits predating their speciation.

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“…Bitter gourd is a commercially and nutritionally important vegetable in Asia, where %340,000 ha are cultivated annually (McCreight et al, 2013). Its cultivation is becoming more popular in several African countries, such as Ghana, Zambia, Congo, and Madagascar for local consumption or for export to Europe and the Middle East to meet the demand of emigrant Asian communities.…”

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confidence: 99%

Diversity Among a Wide Asian Collection of Bitter Gourd Landraces and their Genetic Relationships with Commercial Hybrid Cultivars

Dhillon¹,

Sanguansil²,

Schafleitner³

et al. 2016

J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci.

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We report here the genetic characterization of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) based on polymorphisms of 50 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci in 114 accessions that included landraces, breeding lines, and commercial open-pollinated and F1 hybrid cultivars widely grown in Asia. Neighbor-joining tree analysis revealed a high level of genetic variability in the collection. The 114 accessions formed three subpopulations represented by five clusters. Distribution of accessions across the five clusters reflected their geographic origin to a large extent. South Asian accessions originating from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan were more closely related to each other than to any other geographical group. Likewise, southeast Asian accessions that originated from Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines were grouped together. Accessions that originated from Taiwan were genetically distinct and grouped separately. A landrace from Laos was genetically close to the accessions from Thailand and genetically distinct from the rest of the accessions. White-fruited genotypes were genetically distinct from green- and dark green–fruited genotypes. Low- and medium-bitter accessions were more similar to each other than to the high-bitter genotypes. Accessions with cylindrical fruit were genetically distinct from those with spindle or elongated fruit. Commercial cultivars in each cluster were closely related, which indicated a narrowing of the bitter gourd genetic base in Asia in response to market demands for uniformity and yield. Use of diverse germplasm resources in bitter gourd breeding will help in sustainable breeding and production.

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Gone Global: Familiar and Exotic Cucurbits Have Asian Origins

Cited by 32 publications

References 79 publications

Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology

Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology

Cucumis melo endornavirus: Genome organization, host range and co-divergence with the host

Diversity Among a Wide Asian Collection of Bitter Gourd Landraces and their Genetic Relationships with Commercial Hybrid Cultivars

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