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Use of Tissue Culture and Biotechnology for the Genetic Improvement of Watermelon

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Abstract

Watermelon is an important vegetable crop world-wide with over 81 million metric tons produced annually. Despite these high production figures, million of metric tons of fruit are lost in fields to disease. Genetic improvement through tissue culture and biotechnology offer potential routes of improving fruit harvest by offering higher quality products, like seedless fruit, or by introducing recombinant genes or generating somaclonal variants with improved resistance to biotic or abiotic stresses. The purpose of this review is to highlight how tissue culture and biotechnology have been used for the genetic improvement of watermelon and provide suggestions for future application of these methods to facilitate further genetic improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, 1 University Plaza, Platteville, Wisconsin, 53818, USA

    Michael E. Compton

  2. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Mid-Florida Research and Education Center, University of Florida, 2725 Binion Road, Apopka, Florida, 32703-8504, USA

    D.J. Gray

  3. Department of Virology, Institute of Plant Protection, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel

    Victor P. Gaba

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  1. Michael E. Compton
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  2. D.J. Gray
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  3. Victor P. Gaba
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Correspondence to Michael E. Compton.

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Compton, M.E., Gray, D. & Gaba, V.P. Use of Tissue Culture and Biotechnology for the Genetic Improvement of Watermelon. Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture 77, 231–243 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:TICU.0000018428.43446.58

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