Author(s):

Amal Premachandran, Dhayasree K and Dr. Sajan Kurien

Abstract: Seedlessness and the affection of consumers for it were profoundly pictured in current market. Evidence that seedless forms of Vitis vinifera grapes have been prized for many centuries’ as dried fruit is provided by Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates, Platon and in the writings of ancient Egypt of 3000 BC. In most plants early fruit development can be divided into three phases. Phase I: Ovary development, Fertilization, and Fruit Set, Phase II: Cell division, Seed formation, and Early embryo development and Phase III: Cell expansion and Embryo maturation. For seedless fruits an entirely different scenario of chemical and genetical manipulation can be observed were hormonal and signal transduction alteration particularly growth regulators gibberellins, cytokinin synthetic auxin, and parthenocarpic gene. These hormonal changes mimic the normal fruit development and result into seedless fruit. Parthenocarpy is the paragon of seedlessness, majorly 3 types of parthenocarpy exist they are vegetative, stimulative and stenospermocarpy. Further, seedlessness could also be due to environmental conditions, such as low or high temperatures, chemical treatments, chromosomal aberrations leading controlling meiosis and certain minor factors like self-incompatibility and age. The induction of seedlessness can be with growth regulator application, ploidy breeding, mutation breeding, and endosperm culture. Further, studies biotechnological and transgenic approaches like somatic hybridization, suicidal gene incorporation and manipulating hormonal gene which regulate the fruit set were some of the promising technique. Seedless fruit have many advantage over seeded, possibility of year-round production without the worry of pollen is profound. Moreover, it has gustatory and fruit quality advantage. Biochemical analysis also revealed that clear cut superiority of seedless fruit over seeded. Above all consumer preference and needs of processing industry also revels the significance of seedless fruits.

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