Clemson, USDA Develop Tools to Breed Disease-Resistant Watermelons
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Clemson, USDA develop tools to breed disease-resistant watermelons
Findings from this study are used to develop DNA-based markers to help breeders spot promising plants.
by
Denise Attaway
October 29, 2026
Rahul Kumar, a scientist at the Clemson Coastal Research and Education Center, extracts DNA from watermelon samples for analysis.
Watermelon is the largest acreage vegetable crop grown in South Carolina. To help ensure watermelons are available to eat for years to come, Clemson University and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are developing disease-resistant watermelon breeding lines.
They are also developing tools to help breeders identify and incorporate promising traits, giving watermelon growers ways to protect their crops from diseases.
The work targets powdery mildew, Phytophthora fruit rot and anthracnose. These diseases can weaken plants, damage fruit and reduce yields.
"Building resistance into watermelon can help limit crop losses and reliance on repeated pesticide applications," said
Rahul Kumar, a Clemson postdoctoral researcher working with
Shaker Kousik, a USDA-ARS research plant pathologist, and
R. Karthikeyan , Charles Carter Newman Endowed Chair of Natural Resources Engineering in the agricultural sciences department on Clemson’s main campus. The collaborative research work is based at the USDA-ARS Vegetable Research Laboratory and the Clemson Coastal Research and Education Center (CREC) near Charleston.
The scientists combine traditional plant breeding with molecular marker-assisted breeding. They grow and test watermelons in fields and greenhouses, then study the DNA to identify genomic regions linked to disease resistance.
Molecular marker-assisted plant breeding is a shortcut to breeding better crops by recognizing and selecting plants with the desired traits more efficiently.