Allow me to geek out a bit here, for the sake of the curious. Feel free to correct me if you’re smarter or more pedantic than me.
Basically, the way seedless watermelons work is that you “breed” two genetically incompatible watermelon varieties together, so that the fruit they bare are seedless. If you took a “seedless” watermelon plant and bred it with a compatible variety, it would produce seeded fruits.
The slightly more detailed version of this: Unlike most animals, plants can have more than one set of chromosomes and be perfectly fine. In fact, having multiple sets of chromosomes can actually be beneficial for plants. Typically plants, like animals, have 2 sets of chromosomes, but sometimes by random chance or otherwise, they can have double the amount (or more). If you cross a plant with a normal amount of chromosomes (2N) with a plant that has double the amount of chromosomes (4N), you get something in between (3N). These 3N plants are often fertile and produce seeds when crossed with other 3N plants, but usually they are not fertile when crossed with 2N or 4N plants. They’ll still produce their signature fruit, basically a hormonal response to being pollinated, but there will be no seeds or only underdeveloped, sterile seeds because the parents aren’t compatible.
Close but not quite. 3N plants are sterile. This is because the odd number of chormosomes cannot line up during meiosis and form gametes.
They use diploid pollen 2N pollen to trigger fruit formation but the resulting fruit is parthenocarpic. The white pips and even the occasional colored hard seed coat does not contain an viable embryo.
Crossing of plants with different numbered chormosomes can create fertile offspring if the resulting ploidy is even. For example crossing wheat (6N) with cereal rye (2N) creates Triticale (4N). The Triticale is fertile.
That’s not universally true, though. In many instances, 3N plants have reduced fertility, but can still produce viable seed. Even the seedless watermelons, the 3N types, can sometimes produce viable seeds.
Me: I don’t get it. I’ll just make a dry unfunny joke, and hope that being meta self reflective joke about it will confuse people into thinking it’s funnier than it is.
Allow me to geek out a bit here, for the sake of the curious. Feel free to correct me if you’re smarter or more pedantic than me.
Basically, the way seedless watermelons work is that you “breed” two genetically incompatible watermelon varieties together, so that the fruit they bare are seedless. If you took a “seedless” watermelon plant and bred it with a compatible variety, it would produce seeded fruits.
The slightly more detailed version of this: Unlike most animals, plants can have more than one set of chromosomes and be perfectly fine. In fact, having multiple sets of chromosomes can actually be beneficial for plants. Typically plants, like animals, have 2 sets of chromosomes, but sometimes by random chance or otherwise, they can have double the amount (or more). If you cross a plant with a normal amount of chromosomes (2N) with a plant that has double the amount of chromosomes (4N), you get something in between (3N). These 3N plants are often fertile and produce seeds when crossed with other 3N plants, but usually they are not fertile when crossed with 2N or 4N plants. They’ll still produce their signature fruit, basically a hormonal response to being pollinated, but there will be no seeds or only underdeveloped, sterile seeds because the parents aren’t compatible.
Close but not quite. 3N plants are sterile. This is because the odd number of chormosomes cannot line up during meiosis and form gametes.
They use diploid pollen 2N pollen to trigger fruit formation but the resulting fruit is parthenocarpic. The white pips and even the occasional colored hard seed coat does not contain an viable embryo.
Crossing of plants with different numbered chormosomes can create fertile offspring if the resulting ploidy is even. For example crossing wheat (6N) with cereal rye (2N) creates Triticale (4N). The Triticale is fertile.
That’s not universally true, though. In many instances, 3N plants have reduced fertility, but can still produce viable seed. Even the seedless watermelons, the 3N types, can sometimes produce viable seeds.
Me: starts reading.
Me: about a quarter of the way in…huh?
Me: skims the rest of the message. Huh???
Me: I don’t get it. I’ll just make a dry unfunny joke, and hope that being meta self reflective joke about it will confuse people into thinking it’s funnier than it is.