General status of cucurbit genetic resources in Turkey

Abstract

AbstractTurkey is very rich in cucurbit genetic resources due to its diverse geographicaland ecological situation. Turkey is one of the important diversity centers forcultivated cucurbits because of the adaptation to diverse ecological conditions asresult of natural selection and also the farmers selection in accordance with theirpreference.National collection of Cucurbitaceae species at National Gene Bank of Turkey(AARI) consists of 2223 accessions. Collecting activities have been systematicallyconducted since early 1960s. 25.7 % of this amount is melon, 20.5 % is Cucurbitaspp., 16.1 % is watermelon, 13.4 % is cucumber, 7.7 % is bottle gourd, 7.2 % issquash, 4.2 % is winter squash, 3.3 % is snake melon, 1.3 % is pumpkin, 0.3 % isother cucumbers, 0.2 % squirting cucumber and 0.1 % of bryony.Melon and watermelon genetic resources collections and their morphologicaland molecular characterization trials were done in Çukurova University andapproximately 400 melon and 355 watermelon accessions were collected. Squash andpumpkin studies were done in Ondokuz Mayıs and Ankara University and 128 wintersquash, 40 pumpkin populations and 20 snack seed squash were collected andcharacterized. Selected pumpkins also were characterized molecularly. Bottle gourdcharacterization trials were done in Mustafa Kemal University and 188 accessionswere characterized. Snake melon research activities were conducted at Ankara andÇukurova Universities and 62 accessions were characterized. The evaluation andbreeding programs of these genetic resources are ongoing