Melon Crops Improvement through Biotechnological Techniques for the Changing Climatic Conditions of the 21st Century
Rubaiyat Sharmin Sultana,
Md. Mahabubur Rahman
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 3, June 2014
Pages:
30-41
Received:
7 May 2014
Accepted:
23 May 2014
Published:
10 June 2014
Abstract: As fleshy fruits, two major melon genera are widely produced and consumed, including the watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] and muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.). As different cultivars, cultivated them according to consumer and grower’s choice, and market conditions (i.e. seedless varieties, good shelf life, etc.). China is the world’s largest producer of melons, accounted for over 52% production by weight. In the past, melons considered to be a ‘seasonal delight’ because of their limited availability throughout the year, however, for production flexibility, imports availability and popularity, melons are now available in year-round. In recent, the melon production is 20% within total fruits production worldwide. Over the next three decades, a forty percent increase in the production of melons is required for a growing population. For the decade to 2009, the production of total melons approximately doubled by 2005 and after which it stabled. The inherent complexities in achieving this unparalleled increase in the demands of melon fruits are worsen by the yield-depressing consequences of climate alterations or dissimilarities. With declining agricultural land and water resources, and assailing microbes and pests, the expected increases in the melons production cannot be reached at an efficient level. Elite varieties of melons such as, tolerance to drought condition and inferior lands, or disease resistant that can yield more with fewer inputs will be pivotal to success. Moreover, varieties of melons can improve with the traits such as, seedless, good shelf life, excellent flesh color and good shapes that will make them more attractive to consumers. Plant breeding methods (conventional or molecular breeding) have to be applied for regenerate the elite varieties in melon fruits to meet the global demand for next decades. This paper highlights some of the scientific and technological tools that ought to be the necessary for all improvement programs of the melon production.
Abstract: As fleshy fruits, two major melon genera are widely produced and consumed, including the watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] and muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.). As different cultivars, cultivated them according to consumer and grower’s choice, and market conditions (i.e. seedless varieties, good shelf life, etc.). China is the worl...
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Development and Genotyping Potentials of EST-SSRs in Finger Millet (E. Coracana (L.) Gaertn.)
Oscar Nnaemeka Obidiegwu,
Heiko Parzies,
Jude Ejikeme Obidiegwu
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 3, June 2014
Pages:
42-46
Received:
14 May 2014
Accepted:
29 May 2014
Published:
10 June 2014
Abstract: Finger millet (E. coracana (L.) Gaertn.) provides food for millions of people in Africa and Asia. In this study, sequence data were mined at the database of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) with the aim of developing polymorphic expressed sequence tags simple sequence repeat (EST-SSRs) markers. Three selected markers which showed clear polymorphism in pre-testing with 5 accessions were used to characterize some randomly selected 48 accessions from the pool of finger millet core set. The polymorphic information content (PIC) of the developed markers gave a value range of 0.6741 for marker UH-Ec-931 to 0.7658 for marker UH-Ec-958. The mean PIC value of 0.7171 was recorded. Marker UH-Ec-958 showed 13 alleles per locus while marker UH-Ec-956 showed 20 alleles per locus. The mean average allele per locus was 17. Following Nei’s approach, the mean gene diversity value of 0.7638 was captured by the three markers. Cluster analysis for the 48 selected accessions of finger millet showed four major clusters. Accessions from Zimbabwe and Zambia are distributed on the cluster I. Accessions from India are mostly found in cluster IV. Accessions from Nepal were found mostly on cluster III while Ugandan accessions are found in cluster II and III respectively. Our investigation showed that the developed EST-SSRs are quite effective in unraveling the nature of diversity in our studied population.
Abstract: Finger millet (E. coracana (L.) Gaertn.) provides food for millions of people in Africa and Asia. In this study, sequence data were mined at the database of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) with the aim of developing polymorphic expressed sequence tags simple sequence repeat (EST-SSRs) markers. Three selected markers which showe...
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