Pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo L.) is a nutritionally
valuable food and a significant source of income globally. Pumpkin seeds are
rich in oil, protein, unsaturated fatty acids and tocopherols, which are
associated with improved human health. Understanding the genetic diversity
among pumpkin accessions varying in seed nutrition traits is necessary for
designing sound breeding strategies for developing superior cultivars. In the
current study, 26 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers were used to assess genetic relatedness among 29 C.
pepo accessions varying in seed oil, seed protein, seed-coat phenotype, seed size and fatty
acid composition. The SSR markers revealed 102 alleles averaging 3.92 alleles
per loci and mean polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.44. Eleven of the
markers had a PIC of ≥0.5. Ward dendrogram and principle component analysis
based on seed traits grouped the genotypes into two major clusters
corresponding to subspecies pepo and texana, with all the reduced-hull
accessions grouping within the former. Collectively, this data suggests wide
phenotypic (seed traits) and genotypic variation
within C. pepo that may be exploited
to develop superior reduced-hull cultivars.
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