Cucurbita is one of the crops with high demand in the world. Securing breeding sources is crucial and fundamental to any plant breeding program. This study was conducted to investigate the characterization of phenotypic traits and phylogenetic classification of germplasm provided by the National Agrobiodiversity Center of RDA. Fourteen phenotypic traits were measured in 199 accessions of Cucurbita germplasm. Among these germplasm, 92 accessions of C. moschata, 34 accessions of C. maxima, and 73 accessions of C. pepo were classified using the KASP marker from the Seed Industry Center. It was confirmed that there were five classifications in C. moschata, five in C. maxima and four in the C. pepo. The results of this study provide fundamental data on Cucurbita germplasm and are expected to be useful in breeding programs.

국화(Chrysanthemum morifolium)는 다양한 화색과 화 형 때문에 세계에서 가장 인기 있는 관상식물 중 하나 로서 절화, 분화 및 화단용 등 다양한 형태의 국화에 대 한 요구가 증가하고 있다. 본 연구는 SSR 마커를 이용하 여 국화 60 품종에 대한 유전적 유연관계를 조사하고, 군 집분석결과와 표현형간의 상관관계를 조사하기 위하여 수 행하였다. 표현형질 38개를 이용한 군집분석 결과, 대부 분의 국화 품종들이 화형과 화색에 따라 8개의 그룹으 로 분류되는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구에서 사용된 150 개의 SSR 프라이머는 기존연구에서 보고된 62개와 C. nankingense의 unigene 염기서열 및 C. morifolium의 EST 염기서열로부터 디자인한 88개로 구성되었다. 국화 8품종에 대한 다형성 및 banding pattern 결과를 토대로 하여 국화 60 품종의 DNA 증폭에 사용할 13개의 SSR 마커를 최종 선발하였다. SSR 마커를 이용하여 군집분석을 행한 결과, phylogenetic tree에서 국화 60 품종 전 부가 화색에 따라서 6개의 그룹으로 분류되는 것을 확 인할 수 있었다. Phylogenetic tree와 화색간의 상관관계 를 조사하기 위하여 화색을 종속변수, SSR 마커를 독립 변수로 설정한 다중회귀분석(MRA)을 행하였다. MRA 결 과는 화색과 SSR 마커간에 통계적 유의성이 높은 상관 관계(r2 = 0.903, P < 0.05)를 나타냈다. 본 연구결과는 경 쟁력 있는 국화 신품종 육종을 위한 데이터로 활용될 수 있을 것으로 생각된다.

The phenotypic traits of 63 Asian plum varieties were investigated for three years to select those with superior qualities for breeding. Eight morphological characteristics of the flowers and fruits (e.g., stigma position, fruit skin, and flesh color) were evaluated. Phenological characteristics (e.g., blooming time and ripening time) were also monitored. Being useful traits for breeding, fruit quality factors (e.g., fruit weight, skin color, flesh color, soluble solids content, and titratable acidity) were evaluated as well. The majority of the fruits were cordate (36%) and circular (23%) in shape. Approximately 78% of the varieties showed a red skin color, whereas 67% had yellowish fruit flesh. Fruit ripening occurred from June 28th to September 5th, spanning 69 days. The average fruit weight and soluble solids content were 77.2 g and 12.2 °Brix, respectively. Regarding correlations among the characteristics, the most significant correlation coefficients were for the ripening time and fruit size parameters. Such information of Asian plum varieties will be useful for future breeding programs.

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) is one of the most popular ornamental species in the world due to the great diversity of inflorescence form and color. There has been increasing demands for various types of chrysanthemums, such as cut flowers, potted plants and bedding plants. However, the genomic studies of this species have been not extensively conducted relative to other ornamental species due to high levels of polyploidy (2n = 4x =36 or 2n = 6x = 54) and heterozygosity as well as large genome size. In this work, we developed a molecular tool for cultivar identification using simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and investigated genetic diversity in 127 chrysanthemum cultivars. Of the 150 SSR primer pairs tested in this study, 62 primers were obtained from previous studies, while 88 primers were designed using the unigene sequences of C. nankingense and the Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequences of C. morifolium in the NCBI database. Thirty SSR primers were selected based on polymorphism and banding patterns in a subset of 8 cultivars and used to amplify the DNA of 127 chrysanthemum cultivars. The UPGMA dendrogram based on these 30 SSR markers showed that most of chrysanthemum cultivars were divided into five clusters. These results will benefit chrysanthemum research community to develop elite cultivars.