Achigan-Dako Enoch G, Degbey Hervé, Hale Iago, Blattner Frank R
Laboratory of Genetics, Biotechnology, and Seed Science Faculty of Agronomic Sciences University of Abomey-Calavi Cotonou Benin.
Department of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems College of Life Sciences and Agriculture University of New Hampshire Durham NH USA.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Jan 27;11(4):1918-1936. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7189. eCollection 2021 Feb.
The geographical origin of watermelon () remains debated. While a first hypothesis suggests the center of origin to be West Africa, where the endemic sister species 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 , and using noncoding cpDNA sequences (T-L and F32 regions) from a global collection of 135 accessions. In total, we identified 38 haplotypes in , , , and ; of these, 21 were found in Africa and 17 appear endemic to the continent. The least diverse species was (5 haplotypes) and the most diverse was (16 haplotypes). Some haplotypes of were nearly exclusive to West Africa, and and shared haplotypes that were distinct from those of both and . The results support previous findings that revealed to be the closest relative to (including subsp. ). West Africa, as a center of endemism of is an area of interest in the search of the origin of . This calls for further historical and phylogeographical investigations and wider collection of samples in West and northeastern Africa.
西瓜（）的地理起源仍存在争议。第一种假说认为其起源中心是西非，当地特有的近缘物种 在那里繁衍生息；第二种假说则认为是东北非，当地种植白瓤的苏丹科尔多凡甜瓜。在本研究中，我们利用来自全球135份种质资源的非编码叶绿体DNA序列（T - L和F32区域）推断了 、 和 的生物地理和单倍型谱系。我们总共在 、 、 和 中鉴定出38个单倍型；其中，21个在非洲发现，17个似乎是该大陆特有的。多样性最低的物种是 （5个单倍型），多样性最高的是 （16个单倍型）。 的一些单倍型几乎仅在西非存在， 和 共享的单倍型与 和 的单倍型不同。这些结果支持了先前的研究发现，即 是与 （包括亚种 ）关系最密切的近缘物种。西非作为 的特有中心，是探寻 起源的一个重要区域。这需要在西非和东北非进行进一步的历史和系统地理学调查，并更广泛地收集样本。
