Abstract: A watermelon mutant with dwarf vine and small fruit（named as dsh）was identified from a normal watermelon line‘Hanxuan Lüyuan’. Morphological observed and comparative analysis on the vine length and fruit weight measurements in the mature stage showed that the vine length，internode length and fruit weight of dsh were significant（P < 0.05）lower than those of the normal plants. The mutant was crossed with its wild type line and another watermelon variety with the normal vine length，and these two F1 was self-crossed and backcrossed with dsh，the different generations of F1，F2 and BC population were obtained. Analysis on the vine type and fruit weight of different generations showed that F1 were plants with long vine and normal fruit weight，and the segregation ratios of 3∶1（P > 0.05）and 1∶1（P > 0.05）in F2 and BC populations suggested that the short vine and small fruit trait was inherited as a single recessive nuclear gene and the inheritance modal was agreement with Mendel’s law.

Key words: watermelon, dwarf, small fruit, mutant, short vine