Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 6:68 (article 34) 1983
B. B. Rhodes, Gary Nepa and Stephen Love
Clemson University, Edisto Experiment Station, Blackville, SC 29817
Seeds from an old cultivar of watermelons, labeled ‘Moon and Stars’, were obtained from an unidentified farmer in North Carolina several years ago. Its origin is not known. The ‘Moon and Stars’ pattern is an impressive number of yellow spots, varying in size from microscopic to large portions of the leaf at maturity, that begins to appear on the first true leaf. It has no effect on the vigor of the plant. The fruit are also variegated, but the color of the flesh is not affected.
A cross was made with a pale seedling mutant. The F1 progeny were all spotted, the F2 progeny segregated 3:1 spotted:normal, reciprocal backcrosses with normal parent segregated 1:1, and the backcross with the spotted parent produced all spotted progeny, One backcross with the normal parent did not fit a 1:1 segregation ratio. Some spotted seedlings were probably not scored because seedlings were examined before the full development of the first true leaf (Table 1).
It is concluded that ‘Moon and Stars’ is a simple dominant character.
| Table 1. Segregation of ‘Moon and Stars’ variegation pattern in parents, F1, F2, and backcross progeny in Citrullus lanatus.
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| Generation | Classes
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Expected ratio | X2 | p | |
| Spotted | Nonspotted | ||||
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| ‘Moon and Stars’ (M&S) | All | None | 1:0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Pale Seedling (ps) | None | All | 0:1 | 0 | 1.0 |
| F1 | All | None | 1:0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| F2 | 130 | 46 | 3:1 | 0.49 | 0.50–0.75 |
| 51 | 17 | 3:1 | 0.00 | >0.99 | |
| F1 x ps | 54 | 88 | 1:1 | 8.14 | 0.001–0.01 |
| 77 | 93 | 1:1 | 1.52 | 0.20–0.30 | |
| F1 x M&S | 181 | 0 | 1:0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| ps x F1 | 84 | 74 | 1:1 | 1.38 | 0.20–0.30 |