Abstract
Cucurbita pepo is one of the main crops of the Cucurbitaceae family. Despite its agricultural and biological importance, genomic research on this species has started later and progresses slowerthan in other cucurbits. Here we review the latest genetic and genomic tools developed for C. pepo. A whole-genome shotgun strategy based on pair-end and mate-pair Illumina sequencing,has generated a whole genome draft of 263 Mb into 26,005 scaffolds and 32,754 contigs (contig N50:110 kb and scaffold N50:1.8 Mb). The genome sequence has been annotated using the transcriptome (73,239 unigene clusters, with an average length of 1050 bp) and anchored using a high density genetic map based on a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population (with 6763 SNPs distributed across 21 linkage groups, with a total length of 2635 cM). Further RNA-seq resequencing and GBS genotyping efforts in C.pepohave been conducted to better represent the whole species variation, including the three subspecies (pepo, ovifera and fraterna). Similar information has been generated in related cultivated (C. moschata, C. maxima, C. argyrosperma, C. ficifolia) and wild species of the Cucurbita genus, to provide a valuable insight into the Cucurbita genetic variation. These studies have generated large SNPs collections usefulfor different breeding purposes. All this sequence information along with high throughput reverse genetic tools, such as the first C.pepo TILLING population, and with new mapping populations suitable for complex trait genetic dissection, are allowing the identification of candidate genes underlying the variation of key traits for C. pepo breeding.
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Acknowledgements
Authors thank to the INIA projects RTA2011-00044-C02-1/2 and E-RTA2013-00020-C04-03 of the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) and with FEDER funds (EU).
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Montero-Pau, J., Esteras, C., Blanca, J., Ziarsolo, P., Cañizares, J., Picó, B. (2016). Genetics and Genomics of Cucurbita spp.. In: Grumet, R., Katzir, N., Garcia-Mas, J. (eds) Genetics and Genomics of Cucurbitaceae. Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7397_2016_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7397_2016_7
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