Pollen Viability of F1 Hybrids between Watermelon Cultivars and Disease-resistant, Infraspecific Crop Wild Relatives

Abstract

Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are important sources of variation for domesticated crops like watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) where cultivated varieties have a very narrow genetic base. The use of CWRs in plant breeding can be hampered by low fertility, chromosomal rearrangements, marker distortion, and linkage drag in the progeny. Pollen viability can be a quick and easy way to estimate male fertility, which can be a cause of marker distortion and an indicator of chromosomal rearrangements. Pollen viability was determined for F1 hybrids between cultivars and resistant citron and egusi types and the data were used to determine whether the parental cultivars/lines used or the directionality of the cross play a role in pollen viability. F1 hybrids between cultivars and the egusi type showed no reduction in pollen viability compared with parental lines, whereas pollen viability of hybrids with citron types varied between 61.8% and 91.7%. Significant main effects were observed for the cultivar and donor lines used, but the directionality of the cross did not affect pollen viability. F1 hybrids with ‘Crimson Sweet’ as the cultivar parent had significantly higher pollen viability than those with ‘Sugar Baby’ or ‘Charleston Gray’. Our results indicate that the directionality of the crosses between watermelon cultivars and infraspecific CWRs does not affect pollen viability but that the specific cultivars and donor lines used can have a significant effect. The high pollen viability of cultivar–egusi hybrids is supported by previous genetic data and strongly suggests that it should be easier to introgress traits from egusi types than citron types.