US scientists build watermelon supergenome

Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute have built a “superpangenome” of the modern watermelon and its wild relatives, discovering beneficial genes lost during domestication that could improve disease resistance and fruit quality in this globally important fruit. “The superpangenome provides a valuable genetic toolkit for breeders and researchers to improve commercial watermelon,” said Professor Zhangjun Fei, lead author of the study. “By understanding the genetic makeup and evolutionary patterns of watermelons, we can develop varieties with higher yields, greater disease resistance and greater adaptability.” Genes from wild watermelon varieties that researchers were able to isolate within the superpangenome control things like sweetness, flesh color, and rind thickness that have been lost over centuries of domestication. A particularly exciting discovery was their ability to isolate the “tandem duplication of the ClTST2 sugar transporter gene that increases sugar ...