… the watermelon has been grown in the United States for more than 300 years. But when ARS geneticist Amnon Levi, who today leads the watermelon program at the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory, did a DNA analysis of heirloom and current varieties, he found that all of our watermelons are just about genetically identical, making the fruit vulnerable to devastation by a single disease or pest.
To broaden this narrow gene pool, ARS researchers are going back to wild watermelon relatives in Africa to find genes for resistance to problems likewatermelon vine decline, root-knot nematodes, zucchini yellow mosaic virus, and wilting diseases.
ARS also has more than 1,600 watermelon lines from different parts of the world in a germplasm collection housed in Griffin, GA, which may provide genes for important new traits.
Source: index : USDA ARS
