Morphological characterization of Korean and Turkish watermelon germplasm

9th EUCARPIA Meeting on Genetics and Breeding of Cucurbitaceae -- MAY 21-27, 2008 -- Avignon, FRANCEWOS: 000263558500039A total of 67 watermelon accessions of Korean (37 accessions) and Turkish (27 accessions) germplasm and 3 accessions of other species were characterized for morphological characteristics. The accessions were characterized according to UPOV descriptor list for 56 characters (6 seedling, 4 plant, 11 leaf, 5 flower, 23 fruit and 7 seed). Eight quantitative characters (hypocotyl length, cotyledon width, cotyledon length, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit width, thickness of outer layer of pericarp and soluble solid content) were also measured. According to the results of morphological characterization performed, the accessions displayed a large diversity; however, plant growth habit and leaf blade flecking were constant characters for all the accessions. The 56 qualitatively scored characters were analyzed by principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) while the eight quantitative ones were subjected to principle component analysis (PCA). The results revealed that the Korean and Turkish watermelon accessions belong to diverse groups and can be separated by both multivariate analyses of morphological characters used although the grouping was more apparent in PCoS results.EUCARPI