An EMS mutant library for cucumber

Cucumber is an important vegetable crop and a model crop for the study of sex expression in plants. However, the genomic resources and tools for functional genomics studies in cucumber are still limited. In this paper, we conducted ethyl methyl sulfone (EMS) mutagenesis in the northern China ecotype cucumber inbred line 406 to construct a mutant library. We optimized the conditions of EMS mutagenesis on inbred line 406 which included treatment of seeds at 1.5% EMS for 12 h. We obtained a number of mutant lines showing inheritable morphological changes in plant architecture, leaves, floral organs, fruits and other traits through M-1, M-2 and M-3 generations. The F-2 segregating populations were constructed and analyzed. We found that a short fruit mutant and a yellow-green fruit peel mutant were both under the control of a single recessive gene, respectively. These results provide valuable germplasm resources for the improvement of cucumber genetics and functional genomic research.