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Background  The powdery mildew disease affects thousands of plant species and arguably represents the major fungal threat for many Cucurbitaceae crops, including melon ( Cucumis melo  L.), watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus  L.) and zucchini ( Cucurbita pepo  L.). Several studies revealed that specific members of the  Mildew Locus O  ( MLO ) gene family act as powdery mildew susceptibility factors. Indeed, their inactivation, as the result of gene knock-out or knock-down, is associated with a peculiar form of resistance, referred to as  mlo  resistance.    Results  We exploited recently available genomic information to provide a comprehensive overview of the  MLO  gene family in Cucurbitaceae. We report the identification of 16  MLO  homologs in  C. melo , 14 in  C. lanatus  and 18 in  C. pepo  genomes. Bioinformatic treatment of data allowed phylogenetic inference and the prediction of several ortholog pairs and groups. Comparison with functionally characterized  MLO  genes and, in  C. lanatus , gene expression analysis, resulted in the detection of candidate powdery mildew susceptibility factors. We identified a series of conserved amino acid residues and motifs that are likely to play a major role for the function of MLO proteins. Finally, we performed a codon-based evolutionary analysis indicating a general high level of purifying selection in the three Cucurbitaceae  MLO  gene families, and the occurrence of regions under diversifying selection in candidate susceptibility factors.    Conclusions  Results of this study may help to address further biological questions concerning the evolution and function of  MLO  genes .  Moreover, data reported here could be conveniently used by breeding research, aiming to select powdery mildew resistant cultivars in Cucurbitaceae.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2325-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Structure, evolution and functional inference on the Mildew Locus O (MLO) gene family in three cultivated Cucurbitaceae spp.