Abstract
The watermelon is documented in hieroglyphs on the walls of Egyptian tombs that are at least 4000 years old. In 1857, David Livingstone found watermelon growing in the Kalahari Desert. In 1959, archeologists found watermelon seeds in a prehistoric cave in Hang-Zhou, China which dated back to 3000 B.C. From its origin in central Africa, it must have first been carried to northern Africa, through Persia, to China and India. European explorers brought the watermelon home with them in the 1500s. Watermelon seeds were carried to North America by colonial settlers from Europe and from Africa by slaves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adelberg JW, Rhodes BB (1988) Somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis from zygotic embryos of watermelon, Citrullus lanatus. HortScience 23(3): 786 (Abstr)
Adelberg JW, Rhodes BB (1989) Micropropagation from zygotic tissues of watermelon. In: Proc Cucurbitaceae 89: evaluation and enhancement of cucurbit germplasm. Thomas CE (cd) USDA/ARS. Charleston, South Carolina
Adelberg JW, Rhodes BB, Young R (1989) Micropropagation on a polypropylene membrane.
HortScience 24 (Suppl):139. Abstr 86th Natl Meet Am Soc Hortic Sci, Tulsa, Oklahoma Adelberg JW, Rhodes BB, Skorupska H (1990) Generating watermelon and melon tetraploids.
HortScience 25(9):73 (Abstr)
Adelberg J, Desamero NV, Hale A, Young R (1992) Orchid micropropagation on polypropylene membranes. Am Orchid Soc Bull July 1992, pp 688–695
Adelberg J, Rhodes B, Skorupska H (1993) Generating tetraploid melon in tissue culture. In: Hammerschlag F (ed) Proc 2nd Int Symp In vitro culture and horticultural breeding. Acta Hort 336: 373–380
Adelberg J, Rhodes B, Skorupska H, Bridges W (1994) Explain origin affects the frequency of tetraploid plants from tissue cultures of melon. HortScience 29: 689–692
Allred, Amy J, Lucier G (1990) The U.S. Watermelon Industry. AGES 9015. ERS Staff Rep No AGES 9015, USDA, Economic Research Service, Commodity Econ Div VI, Illinois, 73 pp
Alper Y, Adelberg JW, Young RE, Rhodes BB (1994a) Unitized, non-selective cutting of in vitro watermelon. Trans ASAE: 37: 1331–1336
Alper Y, Young RE, Adelberg JW, Rhodes BB (19946) Mass handling of watermelon microcuttings. Trans ASAE 37: 1337–1343
Andrus CF (1971) Production of seedless watermelons. Tech Bull No 1425. ARS/USDA, Charleston, South Carolina, 12 pp
Anghel I, Rosu A (1985) In vitro morphogenesis in diploid, triploid and tetraploid genotypes of watermelon - Citrullus lanatus ( Thunb. ). Mansf Rev Roum Biol Vega 30: 43–55
Baja) YPS (ed) (1995) Biotechnology in agriculture and forestry, vol 30. Somatic embryogenesis and synthetic seed I. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Barnes LR (1978) In vitro rapid propagation of watermelon - Citrullus lanatus (Thunb) Matsu-mura and Nakai. MS Thesis, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Barnes LR (1979) In vitro propagation of watermelon. Sei Hortic 11: 223–227
Blackmon W, Reynolds B (1982) In vitro shoot regeneration of Hibiscus acetosella, muskmelon. watermelon and winged bean. HortScience 17: 588–589
Choi PS, Soh WY, Kim YS, You OJ, Liu JR (1994) Genetic transformation and plant regeneration of watermelon using Igrobacteriune turne aciena. Plant Cell Rep 13: 344 348
Compton ME, Gray DJ (1993a) Shoot organogenesis and plant regeneration from cotyledons of diploid, triploid and tetraploid watermelon. J Amer Soc Hort Sci 118: 151–157
Compton ME, Gray DJ (1993b) Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration from immature cotyledons of watermelon. Plant Cell Rep 12: 61–65
Compton ME, Gray DJ (1994) Adventitious shoot organogenesis and plant regeneration from cotyledons of tetraploid watermelon. HortScience 29 (3): 211–213
Compton ME, Gray DJ, Elmstrom GW (1993) A simple protocol for micropropagating diploid and tetraploid watermelon using shoot-tip explants. Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult 33: 211–217
Compton ME, Harris JW, Gray DJ (1995) A simple method for estimating ploidy of in vitro watermelon plantlets. HortScience 30: 752 (Abstr)
Desamero NV, Adelberg JW, Hale SA, Young RE, Rhodes BB (1993) Nutrient utilization in liquid/membrane system for watermelon micropropagation. Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult 33: 265–271
Dong J-Z, Jia S-R (1991) High efficiency plant regeneration from cotyledons of watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad.). Plant Cell Rep 9: 559–562
Ezura H, Amagai H, Yoshioka K, Oosawa K (1993) Highly frequent appearance of tetraploidy in regenerated plants, a universal phenomenon, in tissue cultures of melon (Cucumis melo L.) Plant Sci 85: 209–213
Fang G, Grumet R (1993) Genetic engineering of poty virus resistance using constructs derived from the zucchini yellow mosaic virus coat protein gene. Mol Plant-Microbe Interact 6 (3): 358–367
Gao XY, Lin XY, Yang CY, Wang YY, Sun BL, Liu SH (1983) Study on the clonal propagation of seedless watermelon (in Chinese with English summary). J Chin Agric Sci 2: 58–63
Garrett JT, Rhodes BB, Xingping Zhang (1995) Triploid watermelons resist fruit blotch organism. Cucurbit Gene Cooperative Rep 18: 56–58
Gonsalves C, Xue B, Yepes M, Fuchs M, Ling K, Namba S, Chee P, Slightom J, Gonsalves D (1994) Transferring cucumber mosaic virus-white leaf strain coat protein into Cucumis melo L. and evaluating transgenic plants for protection against infections. J Am Hort Sci 119: 345355
Gray DJ, Elmstrom GW (1991) Process for the accelerated production of triploid seeds for seedless watermelon cultivars. US Patent 5,007,198. April 16, 1991, 4 pp
Hale SA, Young RE, Adelberg JW, Keese RJ, Camper ND (1992) Bioreactor development for continual-flow, liquid plant tissue culture. Acta Hortic 319 (I): 107–112
Heins R, Erwin J (1990) Understanding and applying DIF. Greenhouse Grower (Feb): 73–78
Ito T (1992) Present state of transplant production practices in Japanese horticultural industry. In: Kurata K, Kozai T (eds) Transplant production systems. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 65–82 Kihara H (1951) Triploid watermelons. Am Soc Hortic Sei Proc 58: 217–230
Kihara H, Nishiyama I (1947) An application of sterility of autotriploids to the breeding of seedless watermelons. Seiken Ziho 3 (III): 5–15
Kim S, Chang J, Cha H, Lee K (1988) Callus growth and plant regeneration from diverse cultivars of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult 12: 67–74
Kurata K (1994a) Delivery systems for organogenesis. In: Aitken-Christie J, Kozai T, Smith MAL (eds) Automation and environmental control in plant tissue culture. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 257–272
Kurata K (1994b) Cultivation of grafted vegetables II. Development of grafting roots in Japan. HortScience 29 (4): 240–243
Kurtz SL, Hartman PD, Chu IYE (1991) Current methods of commercial micropropagation. In: Vasil 1K (ed) Scale-up and automation in plant propagation. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 7–13
Latin RX, Hopkins DL (1995) Bacterial fruit blotch of watermelon: the hypothetical exam question becomes reality. Plant Dis 79 (3): 761–765
Lee JM (1994) Cultivation of grafted vegetables I. Current status, grafting methods, and benefits. HortScience 29 (4): 235–239
Mohr HC, Sandhu MS (1975) Inheritance and morphological traits of a double recessive dwarf in watermelon, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Mansf J Am Soc Hort Sci 100: 135–137
Moreno V, Roig LA (1990) Somaclonal variation in cucurbits_ In: Bajaj YPS (ed) Biotechnology in agriculture and forestry, vol 11. Somaclonal variation in crop improvement I. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 435–466
Rhodes BB, Adelberg JW, Nagata R, Hegwood CP (1988) Efforts to use the glabrous male-sterile (gins) gene to produce commercial hybrid watermelon. In: Proc Int Symp on Horticulture Gcrmplasm, Vegetable Section. Sept 1988, Beijing
Rhodes BB, Murdock BA, Adelberg.IW (1989) A second look at the glabrous male-sterile (gins) character in watermelon. Cucurbit Genet Cooperative Rep 12: 58
Sari N, Abak K, Pitrat M, Rode JC, Dumas de Vaulx R (1994) Induction of parthenogenetic haploid embryos after pollination by irradiated pollen in watermelon. HortScience 29(10): 1189–1 190
Srivastava DR, Andrianov VM, Piruzian ES (1989) Tissue culture and plant regeneration of watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad. cv. Melitopolski ). Plant Cell Rep 8: 300–302
Tabei Y, Yamanaka H, Kanno T (1993) Adventitious shoot induction and plant regeneration from cotyledons of mature seed in watermelon (Citrullus lauatus L.). Plant Tissue (’ult Lett 10 (3): 235–241
Tabei Y, Oosawa K, Nishimura S, Hanada K, Yoshioka K, Fusijawa I. Nakajima K (1994) Environmental risk evaluation of the transgenic melon with coat protein gene of cucumber mosaic virus in a closed and semiclosed greenhouses. Breed Sei 44: 101–105 (in Japanese with English summary)
Vasil IK (1991) Rational for scale-up and automation of plant propagation. In: Scale-up and automation in plant propagation. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 1–5
Wang YY, Li CL, Jiang ZR, Gao XY (1980) Clonal propagation of seedless watermelon. Acta Hortic 7 (4): 64 (in chinese)
Watts VM (1962) A marked, male-sterile mutant in watermelon. Proc Am Soc Hortic Sci 81: 498 505
Wilkins M (1985) Micropropagation of two triploid hybrids of Citrullus lanutus (Thunb.) Malsumura and Nakai. MS Thesis, Clemson University, Clemson, 59 pp
Xu ZH, Wei ZM, Liu GY (1979) In vitro clonal propagation of triploid seedless watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad.). Acta Phytophysiol Sin 5(3): 245–251 (in Chinese with English summary)
Xue GR, Yu WY, Lei KW (1983) Watermelon plants derived by in vitro anther culture. Plant Physiol Commun 4: 40–42 (In Chinese)
Xue GR, Yu WY, Yang ZY,Sun RX (1988) The induction of watermelon pollen plants and a preliminary observation of the progeny. Hereditas 10 (2):5–8 (In Chinese)
Young RE, Adelberg JW (1996) Plant propagation system and method. US patent no. 5, 525, 505 Young RE, Hale A, Camper ND, Keese RJ, Adelberg JW (1991) Approaching mechanization of plant micropropagation. Trans ASAE 34: 328–333
Zhang XP, Wang M (1990) A genetic male-sterile gene (rn.$) discovered in China. Cucurbit Genet Cooperative Rep 15: 58
Zhang, XP, Skorupska HT, Rhodes BB (1994a) Cytological expression in the ms mutant in watermelon. J Hered 85: 279 285
Zhang XP, Rhodes BB, Adelberg JW (1994b) Shoot regeneration from immature cotyledons of watermelon. Cucurbit Genet Cooperative Rep 17: 102–105
Zhang XP, Rhodes BB, Skorupska HT, Bridges WC (1995) Generating tetraploid watermelon using colchicine in vitro. In: Dunlap JR (cd) Proc Cucurbitaceae 94: evaluation and enhancement of cucurbit germplasm. Texas Aand M University, USDA/ARS/SARL, pp 134–139
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adelberg, J.W., Zhang, X.P., Rhodes, B.B. (1997). Micropropagation of Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. and Nakai (Watermelon). In: Bajaj, Y.P.S. (eds) High-Tech and Micropropagation V. Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, vol 39. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07774-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07774-0_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08269-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-07774-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive