Abstract
The color and pattern of watermelon's rind are crucial external traits that directly affect consumer preferences. Watermelons with stripes having a stronger color than the background rind are ideal for studying plant stripes, while there is still limited knowledge about the genetic mechanisms underlying stripe coloration due to the lack of germplasm resources. In this study, we focused on a watermelon germplasm with colorless stripes, and genetic analysis revealed that the trait is controlled by a single recessive gene. The gene Clsc (Citrullus lanatus stripe coloration), which is responsible for the colorless stripe, was confined into a 147.6 kb region on chromosome 9 by linkage analysis in a large F2 mapping population. Further analysis revealed that the Cla97C09G175170 gene, encoding the APRR2 transcription factor, plays a crucial role in determining watermelon's colorless stripe phenotype and was deduced to be related to chlorophyll and chloroplast development. Based on the physiology experiment results, it can be inferred that Cla97C09G175170 may significantly influence chloroplast development and chlorophyll synthesis in watermelon. The results of this study will be helpful for better understanding the molecular mechanism of stripe coloration in watermelon and for the development of marker-assisted selection (MAS) for new watermelon cultivars.
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