Genetic law and metabolomic analysis of long-and short-vine traits in Cucurbita moschata

GUO Ming; CHENG Wenjie; DAI Sihui; HE Changzheng; TANG Bingqian

doi:10.16861/j.cnki.zggc.2025.0593

Abstract：To elucidate the genetic and metabolic mechanisms underlying the differentiation of vine length traits in Chi-nese pumpkin(Cucurbita moschata),this study utilized homozygous short vine and long vine inbred lines to construct an F2 segregating population.Field phenotypic analysis revealed that the segregation ratio of short vine to long vine plants in F2 population fit a 3∶1(χ2=0.0981,P=0.754),suggesting that the short vine trait may be controlled by a single dominant nuclear gene.Morphologically,short vine materials were characterized by significantly shortened internodes,fewer nodes,increased stem diameter and distorted main vine,whereas long vine materials exhibited longer internodes and a greater number of nodes.Based on LC-MS/MS metabolomics analysis,a total of 1116 metabolites were identified at the vine stage.A total of 297 differential metabolites were obtained by preliminary screening,30 metabolites of which showed highly significant difference between the two vine materials.The up-regulated metabolites were mainly organic acids and their derivatives,along with organic oxygen compounds,while down-regulated metabolism were predominantly phenylpropanoids,polyketides,and organic oxygen compounds.KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that the differential accumulated metabolites were significantly enriched in metabolic pathways,including glycerophospholipid metabolism,ABC transporter,plant secondary metabolite biosynthesis and amino acid biosynthesis.Notably,glycerophospholipid me-tabolism and endogenous cannabinoid signal transduction may play a key role in the formation of different vine types.In conclusion,the short vine trait of C.moschata is controlled by a single dominant nuclear gene,and its formation is closely related to pathways such as glycerophospholipid metabolism and endogenous cannabinoid signal transduction.This trait manifests as a resource reallocation pattern centered on"growth-defense",characterized by enhanced cell wall thickening and secondary metabolism.These findings provide important targets and a theoretical basis for molecular breeding of pumpkin short vine varieties.