Georeferenced phylogenetic analysis of a global collection of wild and cultivated Citrullus species. Issue 4 (27th January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Achigan‐Dako, Enoch G.; Degbey, Hervé; Hale, Iago; Blattner, Frank R.
• Is Part Of: Ecology and evolution. Volume 11:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 1918
• Page End: 1936
• Publication Date: 2021-01-27
• Subjects: biogeography -- center of origin -- Citrullus spp. -- colonization routes -- cpDNA -- Watermelon -- West Africa; Ecology -- Periodicals; Evolution -- Periodicals; 577.05
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7189
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2045-7758

Abstract

Abstract: The geographical origin of watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ) remains debated. While a first hypothesis suggests the center of origin to be West Africa, where the endemic sister species C. mucosospermus thrives, a second hypothesis suggests northeastern Africa where the white‐fleshed Sudanese Kordophan melon is cultivated. In this study, we infer biogeographical and haplotype genealogy for C. lanatus, C. mucosospermus, C. amarus, and C. colocynthis using noncoding cpDNA sequences ( trn T‐ trn L and ndh F ‐rpl 32 regions) from a global collection of 135 accessions. In total, we identified 38 haplotypes in C. lanatus, C. mucosospermus, C. amarus, and C. colocynthis ; of these, 21 were found in Africa and 17 appear endemic to the continent. The least diverse species was C. mucosospermus (5 haplotypes) and the most diverse was C. colocynthis (16 haplotypes). Some haplotypes of C. mucosospermus were nearly exclusive to West Africa, and C. lanatus and C. mucosospermus shared haplotypes that were distinct from those of both C. amarus and C. colocynthis . The results support previous findings that revealed C. mucosospermus to be the closest relative to C. lanatus (including subsp. cordophanus ). West Africa, as a center of endemism of C. mucosospermus, is an area of interest in the search of the origin of C. lanatus . This calls for further historical and phylogeographical investigations and wider collection of samples in West and northeastern Africa. Abstract : While the origin of watermelon is still debated, two endemic close relative are separately found in northeastern Africa and West Africa. Our paper presents the current chloroplast haplotypes distribution to infer the possible colonization route of watermelon using two cultivated and two wild relatives gathered from four continents.