Abstract:

【Objective】 Autumn-winter and winter-spring are two important cropping seasons for cultivating cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in solar greenhouses in China. This study was made to map and analyze some candidate QTLs of yield-associated agronomic traits in cucumber, so as to provide information for molecular marker assisted selection of yield of greenhouse cucumber. 【Method】 A population of 113 cucumber recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between Europe 8 and Qiupeng was used as materials in this study. Based on the RIL molecular linkage map consisting of 182 markers constructed previously,candidate QTLs conferring 9 yield-associated traits were analyzed. 【Result】 A total of 58 QTLs were detected in this study. Among them, 1 QTL conferring single plant yield（SPY）was located on the linkage group LG4; 6 QTLs conferring daily gain weight (DAW) were located on LG2,LG3 and LG6; 5 QTLs conferring single fruit weight (SFW) were located on LG1 and LG5; 2 QTLs conferring the number of fruit setting（NFS）were located on LG2 and LG4; 1 QTL conferring fruit abortion rate (FAR) was located on LG7; 28 QTLs conferring first female flower node (FFN) were located on LG1 through to LG8; 8 QTLs conferring total number of leaves (TNL) were located on LG2, LG7, and LG4; 2 QTLs conferring leaf areas (LA) were located on LG1 and LG3. The above-mentioned QTLs were detected in only one cropping season. There were 5 QTLs conferring female flower number (FFN) on LG2, of which, ffn2a and ffn2b, were detected in both cropping seasons, and with the same positive genetic effects. Some concentrated regions and cluster distribution of QTLs were also found in this study. 【Conclusion】A total of 58 candidate QTLs in a greenhouse-cultivated cucumber population were detected in the study. The two QTLs, ffn2a and ffn2b, were found to be expressed consistently under both cropping seasons of the greenhouse cultivation environment.

Key words: cucumber, RIL, yield-associated agronomic traits, QTLs