Occurrence of in Israel: Challenges for Disease Management and Crop Germplasm Enhancement.

is a soil-borne fungal pathogen infecting many important crop plants. The fungus, which can survive on crop debris for a long period of time, causes charcoal rot disease by secreting a diverse array of cell-wall degrading enzymes and toxins. thrives during periods of high temperatures and arid conditions, as typically occur in Israel and other countries with a Mediterranean climate.

A comprehensive RNA-Seq-based gene expression atlas of the summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) provides insights into fruit morphology and ripening mechanisms.

Background: Summer squash (Cucurbita pepo: Cucurbitaceae) are a popular horticultural crop for which there is insufficient genomic and transcriptomic information. Gene expression atlases are crucial for the identification of genes expressed in different tissues at various plant developmental stages. Here, we present the first comprehensive gene expression atlas for a summer squash cultivar, including transcripts obtained from seeds, shoots, leaf stem, young and developed leaves, male and female flowers, fruits of seven developmental stages, as well as primary and lateral roots.

Comparative Metabolomics and Molecular Phylogenetics of Melon (, Cucurbitaceae) Biodiversity.

The broad variability of (melon, Cucurbitaceae) presents a challenge to conventional classification and organization within the species. To shed further light on the infraspecific relationships within , we compared genotypic and metabolomic similarities among 44 accessions representative of most of the cultivar-groups. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) provided over 20,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Whole-genome resequencing of morphotypes to discover genomic variants associated with morphology and horticulturally valuable traits.

contains two cultivated subspecies, each of which encompasses four fruit-shape morphotypes (cultivar groups). The Pumpkin, Vegetable Marrow, Cocozelle, and Zucchini Groups are of subsp. and the Acorn, Crookneck, Scallop, and Straightneck Groups are of subsp.

Differential expression of cucumber RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 1 genes during antiviral defence and resistance.

RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 1 (RDR1) plays a crucial role in plant defence against viruses. In this study, it was observed that cucumber, Cucumis sativus, uniquely encodes a small gene family of four RDR1 genes. The cucumber RDR1 genes (CsRDR1a, CsRDR1b and duplicated CsRDR1c1/c2) shared 55%-60% homology in their encoded amino acid sequences.

The biosynthetic pathway of the nonsugar, high-intensity sweetener mogroside V from Siraitia grosvenorii.

The consumption of sweeteners, natural as well as synthetic sugars, is implicated in an array of modern-day health problems. Therefore, natural nonsugar sweeteners are of increasing interest. We identify here the biosynthetic pathway of the sweet triterpenoid glycoside mogroside V, which has a sweetening strength of 250 times that of sucrose and is derived from mature fruit of luo-han-guo (Siraitia grosvenorii, monk fruit).

Italian horticultural and culinary records of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbitaceae) and emergence of the zucchini in 19th-century Milan.

Background And Aims: Summer squash, the young fruits of Cucurbita pepo, are a common, high-value fruit vegetable. Of the summer squash, the zucchini, C. pepo subsp.

Origin and emergence of the sweet dessert watermelon, Citrullus lanatus.

Background And Aims: Watermelons, Citrullus species (Cucurbitaceae), are native to Africa and have been cultivated since ancient times. The fruit flesh of wild watermelons is watery, but typically hard-textured, pale-coloured and bland or bitter. The familiar sweet dessert watermelons, C.

Reconstruction of skull defects in the middle ages and renaissance.

In Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Arabic medicine, the closure of a skull defect was not provided at the end of a therapeutic trepanation or in cases of bone removal. The literature from the Middle Ages and Renaissance disclosed some striking and forgotten practices. Gilbertus Anglicus (c.

Cucurbits depicted in Byzantine mosaics from Israel, 350-600 ce.

Background And Aims: Thousands of floor mosaics were produced in lands across the Roman and Byzantine empires. Some mosaics contain depictions of agricultural produce, potentially providing useful information concerning the contemporary presence and popularity of crop plants in a particular geographical region. Hundreds of floor mosaics produced in Israel during the Byzantine period have survived.

The PH gene determines fruit acidity and contributes to the evolution of sweet melons.

Taste has been the subject of human selection in the evolution of agricultural crops, and acidity is one of the three major components of fleshy fruit taste, together with sugars and volatile flavour compounds. We identify a family of plant-specific genes with a major effect on fruit acidity by map-based cloning of C. melo PH gene (CmPH) from melon, Cucumis melo taking advantage of the novel natural genetic variation for both high and low fruit acidity in this species.

Medieval iconography of watermelons in Mediterranean Europe.

Background And Aims: The watermelon, Citrullus lanatus (Cucurbitaceae), is an important fruit vegetable in the warmer regions of the world. Watermelons were illustrated in Mediterranean Antiquity, but not as frequently as some other cucurbits. Little is known concerning the watermelons of Mediterranean Europe during medieval times.

Medieval emergence of sweet melons, Cucumis melo (Cucurbitaceae).

Background: Sweet melons, Cucumis melo, are a widely grown and highly prized crop. While melons were familiar in antiquity, they were grown mostly for use of the young fruits, which are similar in appearance and taste to cucumbers, C. sativus.

Occidental diffusion of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) 500-1300 CE: two routes to Europe.

Background: The cucumber, Cucumis sativus, is one of the most widely consumed fruit vegetables the world over. The history of its dispersal to the Occident from its centre of origin, the Indian subcontinent, has been incorrectly understood for some time, due to the confusion of cucumbers with vegetable melons. Iconographic and literary evidence has shown that cucumber was absent in Roman times, up to 500 CE, but present in Europe by late medieval times, 1300.

Genetic relationships and evolution in Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin, squash, gourd) as revealed by simple sequence repeat polymorphisms.

Genetic relationships among 104 accessions of Cucurbita pepo were assessed from polymorphisms in 134 SSR (microsatellite) and four SCAR loci, yielding a total of 418 alleles, distributed among all 20 linkage groups. Genetic distance values were calculated, a dendrogram constructed, and principal coordinate analyses conducted. The results showed 100 of the accessions as distributed among three clusters representing each of the recognized subspecies, pepo, texana, and fraterna.

Medieval herbal iconography and lexicography of Cucumis (cucumber and melon, Cucurbitaceae) in the Occident, 1300-1458.

Background: The genus Cucumis contains two species of important vegetable crops, C. sativus, cucumber, and C. melo, melon.

Genes for resistance to zucchini yellow mosaic in tropical pumpkin.

Four cultigens of Cucurbita moschata resistant to zucchini yellow mosaic virus were crossed with the susceptible 'Waltham Butternut' and with each other in order to clarify the mode of inheritance of resistance and relationships among the genes involved. Five loci were segregating, with genes for resistance Zym-0 and Zym-4 carried by 'Nigerian Local' and one of them also carried by 'Nicklow's Delight,' Zym-1 carried by 'Menina,' and zym-6 carried by 'Soler.' A recessive gene carried by 'Waltham Butternut,' zym-5, is complementary with the dominant Zym-4 of 'Nigerian Local,' that is, the resistance conferred by Zym-4 is only expressed in zym-5/zym-5 individuals.

The Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae illustrated in medieval manuscripts known as the Tacuinum Sanitatis.

Background And Aims: Beginning in the last two decades of the 14th century, richly illuminated versions of the Tacuinum Sanitatis, the Latin translation of an 11th-century Arabic manuscript known as Taqwim al-Sihha bi al-Ashab al-Sitta, were produced in northern Italy. These illustrated manuscripts provide a window on late medieval life in that region by containing some 200 full-page illustrations, many of which vividly depict the harvest of vegetables, fruits, flowers, grains, aromatics and medicinal plants. Our objective was to search for and identify the images of taxa of Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae.

Genes for "Reverse" fruit striping in squash (Cucurbita pepo).

Longitudinal striping is a common fruit color pattern in Cucurbita pepo and is conferred by any of several alleles at the light coloration-1 locus. Normally, dark stripes appear over the fruit surface areas between the 10 main subepidermal vein tracts with the lighter background color over and adjacent to these vein tracts. Less commonly, the striping is "reversed," that is, lighter than the background color.

The cucurbits of mediterranean antiquity: identification of taxa from ancient images and descriptions.

Background: A critical analysis was made of cucurbit descriptions in Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, Columella's De Re Rustica and Pliny's Historia Naturalis, works on medicine, agriculture and natural science of the 1st century ce, as well as the Mishna and Tosefta, compilations of rabbinic law derived from the same time period together with cucurbit images dating from antiquity including paintings, mosaics and sculpture. The goal was to identify taxonomically the Mediterranean cucurbits at the time of the Roman Empire.

Findings: By ancient times, long-fruited forms of Cucumis melo (melon) and Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd) were selected, cultivated and used as vegetables around the Mediterranean and, in addition, bottle-shaped fruits of L.

First known image of Cucurbita in Europe, 1503-1508.

Background: The genus Cucurbita (pumpkin, squash, gourd) is native to the Americas and diffused to other continents subsequent to the European contact in 1492. For many years, the earliest images of this genus in Europe that were known to cucurbit specialists were the two illustrations of C. pepo pumpkins that were published in Fuchs' De Historia Stirpium, 1542.

Dual role of the pigmentation gene B in affecting carotenoid and vitamin E content in squash (Cucurbita pepo) mesocarp.

The yellow and orange colorations of the mesocarp of pumpkins and squash of Cucurbita pepo are due to the presence of carotenoid pigments that also greatly contribute to their nutritional value. Carotenoids, as well as tocopherols (vitamin E), are isoprenoid compounds formed by branches of a common biosynthetic pathway. Photodiode array HPLC analysis was used to simultaneously determine the content and composition of fruit-flesh carotenoids and tocopherols in five pairs of near-isogenic lines differing in the allelic state of genes previously identified as having profound effects on fruit color.

The cucurbit images (1515-1518) of the Villa Farnesina, Rome.

Background: The gorgeous frescoes organized by the master Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) and illustrating the heavenly adventures of Cupid and Psyche were painted between 1515 and 1518 to decorate the Roman villa (now known as the Villa Farnesina) of the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi (1466-1520). Surrounding these paintings are festoons of fruits, vegetables and flowers painted by Giovanni Martini da Udine (1487-1564), which include over 170 species of plants. A deconstruction and collation of the cucurbit images in the festoons makes it possible to evaluate the genetic diversity of cucurbits in Renaissance Italy 500 years ago.