A team of researchers from the National Maize Improvement Center of China, the University of Wisconsin, and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture have produced an integrated genetic and cytogenetic map of the cucumber genome, an important resource for plant breeders developing better cucurbit crops.
Crop Biotech Update reports the map includes 995 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers in seven linkage groups which spans in total 573 centimorgans. Among the 995 SSRs, 49%, 26% and 22% were conserved in melon, watermelon and pumpkin, respectively. FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization) analysis was used to establish the relationships between linkage groups and cucumber chromosomes.
The map, according to researchers, is the first reported for a cucurbit species.
The paper is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005795