Acta Agriculturae Boreali-Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 47-55. doi: 10.7668/hbnxb.20196072

Special Issue: Cucumber Biotechnology Vegetables

• Crop Genetics & Breeding·Germplasm Resources·Biotechnology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evaluation of Pedicel Length and QTL Mapping in Cucumber Germplasm Resources

LEI Xiaoxiao1,2, SONG Xiaofei1,2, LI Xiaoli1,2, ZHANG Jiaojiao1,2, WANG Chen1,2, JIA Jianhua1,2, XIE Yang1,2, YAN Liying1,2   

  1. 1 College of Horticultural Science & Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science & Technology, Qinhuangdao 066000, China
    2 Hebei Key Laboratory of Horticultural Germplasm Excavation and Innovative Utilization, Qinhuangdao 066000, China
  • Received:2025-06-20 Published:2026-05-06

Abstract:

Evaluating the pedicel length trait of cucumber germplasm resources and exploring the related variation sites can help improve the breeding efficiency of cucumber quality.This study first evaluates the fruit pedicle length traits of 229 cucumber germplasm resources on the day of flowering and during the commercial fruiting period.Then,using the identified medium to long pedicle self-cross lines 9D6 and 6457 as parents,and short pedicle self-cross lines MT and 6429 as parents,F2 populations were constructed.QTL-seq was used to locate the QTLs controlling cucumber pedicel length traits,and Real-time Quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR)was employed to analyze the expression patterns of candidate genes and validate variant sites.The results showed that the pedicel length on the day of flowering and during the commercial melon period was positively correlated with the germplasm resources,and the variation of the pedicel length on the day of flowering and during the commercial melon period was 0.4—6.2 cm,0.4—5.3 cm,respectively.Genetic analysis showed that the broad genetic forces of cucumber pedicel length were 69.4%,94.4%,respectively,showing typical quantitative trait inheritance characteristics.Six and five QTL loci related to pedicel length on the day of flowering were detected in two sets of F2 population,respectively.Two QTL intervals 0.840—7.350 Mb on chromosome 5 and 17.735—31.087 Mb on chromosome 6 were co-localized in the two sets of populations.CsPG1(CsaV3_5G010970)and CsROS1 (CsaV3_6G040410)were predicted within the QTL interval of co-location.A non-synonymous SNP311 C/T was found at the conserved domain of CsPG1 coding sequence(CDS)in the medium-long fruit pedicel parental lines 9D6 and 6457.In addition,there was a 9-bp base insertion in the CsPG1 promoter of 9D6,which contained TATA-box,which may be related to its significantly higher expression than other parents on the day of flowering.A 3-bp deletion was found at the CDS of CsROS1 in the short fruit pedicel parental lines 6429,resulting in the loss of one serine residue in the encoded protein.A synonymous SNP3282 T/C was detected at the CDS in the long fruit pedicel parental lines 9D6 and 6457,causing the preferred codon UAU to change to the non-preferred codon UAC.CsPG1 and CsROS1 were considered to be key candidate genes for cucumber fruit pedicel length.

Key words: Cucumber, Germplasm resource, Pedicel length, Genetic analysis, QTL analysis, qRT-PCR

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Cite this article

LEI Xiaoxiao, SONG Xiaofei, LI Xiaoli, ZHANG Jiaojiao, WANG Chen, JIA Jianhua, XIE Yang, YAN Liying. Evaluation of Pedicel Length and QTL Mapping in Cucumber Germplasm Resources[J]. Acta Agriculturae Boreali-Sinica, 2026, 41(2): 47-55. doi: 10.7668/hbnxb.20196072.

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