Identification of high-efficiency SSR markers for assessing watermelon genetic purity.

Genomic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to fingerprint and determine genetic similarity (GS) of the watermelon breeding lines, as well as the purity of their hybrid derivatives. Cluster analysis and Jaccard's distance coefficients using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) have classified these lines into three major groups. Notwithstanding,the genetic background of these lines is narrow as revealed by the restricted GS coefficients. Fifty-five sets of SSR markers were employed in this study. Fourteen of these markers were polymorphic between the breeding lines and were used for assessing hybrid purity. Cross-checking assay validated nine SSR markers as informative SSR markers for purity detection of these hybrids. To confirm the accuracy and efficiency of these markers, their derived PCR products were further sequenced, and ClSSR09643, ClSSR18153 and ClSSR01623 were selected as high-efficiency SSR markers. Interestingly, SSR markers ClSSR09643 and ClSSR18153 were broadly applied for purity detection of more than two different hybrids, while SSR marker ClSSR01623 behaved as a specific marker forpurity detection in this study. Genetic purity of six commercial watermelon hybrids was definitely evaluated using these SSR markers. Genetic purity of all tested hybrids exceeded 96% while the field purity was above 98%. Genetic purity test was an emergency for identifying off-types and selfed female in a lot of hybrid seeds. Here, we elucidated the potential of nine SSR markers including threewith higher breeding selection efficiency. We recommended them to seed company for purity improvement of watermelon commercial hybrid varieties.