Powdery mildew, caused by the fungus Podosphaera xanthii, is one of the most important diseases of melon. Although there are several pathogenic races of P. xanthii, race 1 is the predominant race in South Carolina and in other parts of the United States. We used a densely genotyped recombinant inbred line melon population for traditional quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, to identify two major (qPx1-5 and qPx1-12) and two minor (qPx1-4 and qPx1-10) QTLs (named according to race - chromosome number) associated with resistance to P. xanthii race 1. QTL mapping of disease severity in multiple tissues (hypocotyl, cotyledons, true leaves, and stems) identified the same genetic basis of resistance in all tissue types. Whole-genome resequencing of the parents was used for marker development across the major QTLs and functional annotation of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for candidate gene analysis. Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers were tightly linked to the QTL peaks of qPx1-5 (pm1-5_25329892, pm1-5_25461503 and pm1-5_25625375) and qPx1-12 (pm1-12_22848920 and pm1-12_22904659) in the population and will enable efficient marker-assisted introgression of powdery mildew resistance into improved germplasm. Candidate genes were identified in both major QTL intervals that encode putative R genes with missense mutations between the parents. The candidate genes provide targets for future breeding efforts and a fundamental examination of resistance to powdery mildew in melon.
Keywords: Cucumis melo; KASP; Podosphaera xanthii; host plant resistance; melon; powdery mildew.