Design and validation of a codominant molecular marker for fruit acidity in muskmelon (Cucumis melo).

An experiment was conducted to analyse a germplasm panel of 92 Cucumis sp. accessions predominantly from India for fruit acidity and validate the involvement of 'CmpH' locus for this trait through design of suitable marker and association analysis. Among 92 accessions, 28 accessions were found to be sour with fruit pH < 5.0 and titratable acidity value >0.20%. We designed a primer pair 'Dupl‐12' flanking the causal polymorphism of 12 bp duplication in the earlier reported candidate gene 'CmpH' for fruit acidity. It amplified two types of alleles (180 and 192 bp) depending upon the absence or presence of 12 bp duplication and was codominant in nature. This was used to perform association analysis in the germplasm panel and was found to be significantly associated with titratable acidity (R2 = 73.43%) and pH (R2 = 70.76%), validating the role of 'CmpH' gene for fruit acidity. 'Dupl‐12' marker can therefore be employed for marker‐assisted transfer of acidity into elite backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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