Graduate student west virginia state universioty Dunbar, West Virginia
Body of Abstract: Selenium (Se) is a naturally occurring element with a narrow range of necessity and toxicity effects on living organisms. Rapid industrialization, modern agricultural practices, and other anthropogenic activities add a significant quantity of Se into the environment, which induces severe toxic effects on all life forms, altering the soil properties and biological activities at elevated concentrations. Agriculture sites and water bodies of West Virginia have been reported with high concentrations of Se due to coal mining and agriculture activities and erosion of natural deposits, which could cause various health hazards through biomagnification in the food chain. Therefore, it’s important to ensure the food safety of the local population by minimizing the entry of Se into the food chain. Hence, the present study was designed to screen the low Se accumulating watermelon lines through a pollution-safe cultivar (PSC) screening approach. In this study, a total of 180 watermelon lines are screening for their Se tolerance. Among the tested lines, PI525084, PI482248, and PI500318 showed better tolerance to the Se at the seedling stage. However, watermelon lines PI490379 and PI494821 were susceptible to Se exposure. Once all the genotypes are screened, the potential tolerant lines can be identified. Metabolic profiling and Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) is in progress. Our results will provide critical insight into how Se affects plant development, metabolism, and genes involved in transport, which can help to develop pollution-free cultivars (PSC) and ensure food safety.