Abstract
Seedless watermelon production relies on triploid cultivation or the application of plant growth regulators. However, challenges such as chromosomal imbalances in triploid varieties and concerns about food safety with growth regulator application impede progress. To tackle these challenges, we developed a sexually and vegetatively reproducible inducer line of diploid seedless watermelon by disrupting the double fertilization process. This innovative approach has enabled the successful induction of diploid seedless watermelon across diverse varieties.
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Data availability
All data generated in this study are presented in the paper. The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
We thank W. Yang of Yazhou Bay National Laboratory for providing valuable suggestions for the original manuscript. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (SQ2023YFE0201239 to L.Y.), the National Youth Talent Program (A279021801 to L.Y.), the National Science Foundation of China (32372734 to L.Y.), Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-25 to L.Y.), Key-Area R&D Program of Guangdong Province (2022B0202060001 to L.Y.), Key R&D Program of Shaanxi Province (2023-YBNY-008 to L.Y.) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2022JM-112 to M.L.).
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L.Y. conceptualized and designed the study, including the experimental framework. X.C., Y.L., G.A. and M.L. carried out the experiments. X.Z., J.W. and S.T. provided project supervision. L.Y. and X.C. collaborated on manuscript writing.
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Nature Plants thanks Tomoko Igawa, Thomas Lubberstedt and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Chen, X., Li, Y., Liu, M. et al. A sexually and vegetatively reproducible diploid seedless watermelon inducer via ClHAP2 mutation. Nat. Plants 10, 1446–1452 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01799-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01799-5
