Article
Horticulture
Filippos Bantis, Christodoulos Dangitsis, Anastasios S. Siomos, Athanasios Koukounaras
Summary: The study found that using different light qualities during fruit seedling production can have an impact on both the quality of the seedlings and the quality of the fruit. Red light wavelengths have a positive effect on seedling development and leaf growth, but are detrimental to root development. Blue light wavelengths have a negative impact on root development, but aid in leaf growth. After field cultivation, fruit quality and valuable nutritive characteristics remain high regardless of the light treatments.
Article
Agronomy
Yu Wang, Junqian Zhou, Wenxu Wen, Jin Sun, Sheng Shu, Shirong Guo
Summary: Soil salinization presents a major challenge to agriculture by decreasing crop yield and quality. Grafting has emerged as an important technique to enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stress. This study demonstrates that grafting watermelon onto bottle gourd improves salt tolerance. Transcriptome and proteome analyses reveal the involvement of genes related to carbon metabolism, photosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction, and stress defense in the salt-stress response of bottle gourd rootstock-grafted watermelon seedlings.
Article
Plant Sciences
Man Zhang, Jinhua Xu, Runsheng Ren, Guang Liu, Xiefeng Yao, Lina Lou, Jian Xu, Xingping Yang
Summary: Grafting enhances watermelon resistance against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. niveum infection by upregulating pathogenesis-related proteases, inducing differential accumulation of proteins in leaves, and promoting the roles of protein biosynthesis and stress defense-related proteins. Signal transduction proteins positively regulate the defense process, while carbohydrate and energy metabolism contribute to energy production in grafted watermelon seedlings under infection. Enhanced scavenging capacity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may also contribute to the disease resistance of grafted watermelon seedlings.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Juanqi Li, Yang Li
Summary: The study found that cucumber seedlings require proper light during storage to maintain their quality and recovery ability. At least 15 μmol·m(-2)·s(-1) PPFD is necessary for seedlings stored in the dark for 2 to 4 days, while at least 30 μmol·m(-2)·s(-1) PPFD is needed when storage time extends to 6 days.
Article
Agronomy
Filippos Bantis, Anna Gkotzamani, Christodoulos Dangitsis, Athanasios Koukounaras
Summary: Research shows that using different light wavelengths during the propagation of watermelon seedlings can have varying effects on growth and flowering, with far-red light accelerating the flowering process. Despite different light treatments, fruit quality was not affected in the end.
Article
Plant Sciences
Marleny Garcia-Lozano, Purushothaman Natarajan, Amnon Levi, Ramesh Katam, Carlos Lopez-Ortiz, Padma Nimmakayala, Umesh K. Reddy
Summary: The study revealed that 88% of genes in tetraploid watermelon followed a >1:1 dosage effect, with most genes being upregulated. A large number of hypomethylated regions were identified in an isogenic tetraploid watermelon, localized near transcriptional start sites of upregulated genes, highlighting the importance of methylation in gene regulation. Genome doubling caused changes in higher-order chromatin structures and led to switching of compartments harboring genes associated with growth, development, and stress responses.
Article
Plant Sciences
Filippos Bantis, Christodoulos Dangitsis, Athanasios Koukounaras
Summary: The study showed that light treatments had varying effects on different genotype combinations, but some parameters related to biomass production displayed genotypic dependency.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Tinghui Lv, Lili Zhao, Shuting Zhang, Jingyue Guan, Wei Liu, Hongyan Qi
Summary: This study found that supplementary red lighting in a greenhouse significantly increased the content of lycopene in watermelon flesh. The major gene responding to red light in lycopene synthesis pathway was identified as PHYTOENE SYNTHASE 1 (ClPSY1). Additionally, two key transcription factors involved in light signal transduction, PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTORS 3 (ClPIF3) and LONG HYPOCOTYL 5 (ClHY5), were identified in watermelon flesh. Furthermore, it was discovered that ClHY5 and ClPIF3 formed a transcriptional module that responded to red light and regulated watermelon lycopene accumulation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Chandrasekar S. Kousik, Jennifer L. Ikerd, W. Patrick Wechter, Sandra Branham, William Turechek
Summary: This study discovered five watermelon germplasm lines that have broad resistance to Phytophthora fruit rot caused by Phytophthora capsici. This finding is important for the development of commercial watermelon cultivars with broad resistance to the disease.
Article
Horticulture
Xiaofen Du, Jessica Ramirez
Summary: Watermelon rind is commonly discarded as waste, but this study found that it contains volatile compounds, mainly aldehydes and alcohols. The volatile difference between rind and flesh is greater than the difference among cultivars.
Article
Biology
Priyanka Bijalwan, Kaouthar Jeddi, Ishan Saini, Meenakshi Sharma, Prashant Kaushik, Kamel Hessini
Summary: The study revealed that inoculation with silicon and two species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi significantly improved growth and antioxidant efficiency of watermelon plants under salt stress, helping alleviate the negative effects of salinity stress on plants.
SAUDI JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Winnie Gimode, Kan Bao, Zhangjun Fei, Cecilia McGregor
Summary: The study identified QTLs associated with gummy stem blight resistance in a watermelon population and developed markers for efficient introgression of the resistance loci, providing a new approach for breeding GSB-resistant watermelon cultivars.
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED GENETICS
(2021)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Daniel Alexander Mendez, Maria Jose Fabra, Laura Gomez-Mascaraque, Amparo Lopez-Rubio, Antonio Martinez-Abad
Summary: This study utilized an experimental design to investigate the impact of extraction parameters on watermelon rind pectin, resulting in the discovery of novel compositional features and the potential to produce customized pectin ingredients with wider application scope. Optimum conditions yielded WRP with comparable purity and molar mass but higher branching degree compared to traditional pectin sources. Different extraction conditions generated pectin structures with varying characteristics.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Andre Alisson Rodrigues da Silva, Pedro Francisco do Nascimento Sousa, Geovani Soares de Lima, Lauriane Almeida dos Anjos Soares, Hans Raj Gheyi, Carlos Alberto Vieira de Azevedo
Summary: This study evaluated the effects of salinity levels and hydrogen peroxide on the growth and postharvest quality of mini watermelon in a hydroponic system, finding that a hydrogen peroxide concentration of 20 mu M improved the postharvest quality of the fruits.
WATER AIR AND SOIL POLLUTION
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Sikandar Amanullah, Shenglong Li, Benjamin Agyei Osae, Tiantian Yang, Farhat Abbas, Meiling Gao, Xuezheng Wang, Hongyu Liu, Peng Gao, Feishi Luan
Summary: This study aimed to identify QTL regions controlling ovary, fruit, and seed phenotypes in watermelon. Through whole genome sequencing and SNP analysis, a genetic map was constructed, and 33 QTLs were identified across the eight chromosomes of watermelon. These QTLs explained 5.32-25.99% of the phenotypic variance.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)