Journal of Innovative Agriculture, Volume 6, Issue 4 : 1-3
Research Article

OPEN ACCESS | Published on : 20-Dec-2019

Induction of tetraploids in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.) through chromosome doubling

  • Selvakumar Gurunathan
  • Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu, India.
  • Bharathi Raja Ramadoss
  • Department of Plant sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.

Abstract

Polyploidy is an important evolution process for the creation of new species. Up to 70% of angiosperms are reported that as polyploids. Tetraploids development in  watermelon is the first most step in the seedless fruit development. In this study, the colchicine was used to generate the tetraploid watermelons. The chloroplast counting methodology was adopted to segregate tetraploids. Among the 63 plants treated, one plant showed 11- 14 chloroplasts in the guard cells. Chimeral stomatal guard cells pertaining to the number of chloroplasts also identified in this investigation.

Keywords

watermelon, tetraploidy, colchicine, chloroplast, screening

References

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    Compton, M.E., D.J. Gray and G.W. Elmstrom.1996. Identification of tetraploid regenerants from cotyledons of diploid watermelon cultured in vitro. Euphytica, 87: 165-172.

    Yamamuro, K. 1978. Effect of growth regulators on fruit setting of watermelon. Bull. Ibaraki Hort. Expt. Sta., 7: 1-15.

    Sari, N.,K. Abak and M. Pitrat. 1999. Comparison of ploidy level screening methods in watermelon: Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. and Nakai. Scientia Horticulturae, 82(3-4): 265-277.

    Jaskani, M. J., S.W. Kwon and D.H. Kin. 2005. Flow cytometry of DNA contents of colchicine treated watermelon as a ploidy screening method at MI stage. Pakistan Journal of Botany, 37(3): 685.

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