Work

A Public Middensity Genotyping Platform for Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L.) is a diploid species (2 n = 2 x = 14) in the Cucurbitaceae family and represents an economically important vegetable crop cultivated worldwide. In recent years, substantial advances have been achieved in molecular mapping and cloning of genes and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) underlying key phenotypic traits. However, these resources have yet to be well integrated into the breeding pipeline of marker-assisted selection in cucumber because of the lack of an efficient and cost-effective genotyping platform. We report the development of a middensity cucumber Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) amplicon tagging (DArTag) genotyping panel designed to support molecular mapping and breeding applications. The panel was constructed using 72 representative cucumber accessions worldwide to capture broad genetic diversity. A total of 3061 target loci were selected strategically to prioritize even genomic distribution and maximal genetic diversity detection, enriched within previously reported QTLs. The performance of the marker panel was validated in two F 2 populations, in which it exhibited high amplification rates and characterized pedigree relationships effectively. In addition, the cucumber DArTag panel enabled the construction of a linkage map in one of the mapping populations. A major QTL, compact plant2 , or cp2 , associated with compact plant architecture was localized successfully to the distal region of chromosome 4, demonstrating the robust capability of the cucumber DArTag panel for trait mapping. Collectively, the cucumber 3K DArTag panel (where K represents 1000) is a cost-effective, middensity genotyping resource with broad applicability for public and private breeding programs. The platform’s open-access nature enables genetic datasets generated from the marker panel to be compared and integrated across projects, institutions, and countries.

Source: HortScience

DOI: 10.21273/hortsci19456-26