Ethylemethanesulfonate mutagenesis of cucumber for large-scale mutant screens

To broaden the genetic resources for cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) breeding, and to accelerate the systematic functional analysis of cucumber genes, a cucumber mutant library was constructed by using Ethylmethanesulfonate (EMS) mutation in this study. A total of 2,200 seeds were treated with EMS solutions, and 421 M2 families were obtained, which showed a mutant frequency of 19.1%. Some visible mutant phenotypes, such as having few spines, long fruits, short fruits, pale green fruit color, and plants without flowers were identified in this study. This study will be helpful for the identification of causal genes and for the determination of interesting mutant phenotypes of cucumber in the future. (author)