Abstract
<p>Parthenocarpic fruit development is regulated by a plant hormone, i.e. gibberellin. The response of seven lines of tomato to gibberellin was investigated to distinguish the degree of parthenocarpy and to compare the quality of seedless and seeded fruits. The flower from stage 12 (size 5 mm) until 4 days after anthesis was sprayed with GA<sub>3</sub> 0 mmol/L and 0.06 mmol/L. The treatments were arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. GA<sub>3</sub> 0.06 mmol/L reduced pollen germination, whose pollen germination (28.98%) was lower than 0 mmol/L (46.06%). The total numbers of seeds and fertilized seeds of treated fruit were significantly reduced in comparison with the control. Gibberellin application also increased the number of degenerated seeds. Within the genotypes studied, four groups were distinguished, which showed a different degree of parthenocarpy in response to gibberellin application. Kaliurang 206 and A65 are categorized as seedless with a 93.65% and 89.58% reduction in the total number of seeds, respectively. Gamato 1 is categorized as low-seeded with an 83.83% reduction in the total number of seeds. Gamato 3, Gamato 5, and B78 are categorized as medium-seeded with a 69.83-80.85% reduction in the total number of seeds, whereas A175 is categorized as normal-seeded with a 36.94% reduction in the total number of seeds. Gibberellin significantly increased the sugar content by 14.04% and reduced the ascorbic acid content by 9.68% of parthenocarpic fruits compared with the untreated.</p>
Highlights
The majority of seeds are undesirable features in many crops, edible fruit
This result was in accordance with a previous study which had been reported that gibberellin inhibited the pollen tube growth at high concentration (Singh, Jermakow, & Swain, 2002)
Sugiura and Inaba (1966) reported that Delaware grapes treated with gibberellin at pre-bloom reduced pollen germination due to the reduction of respiration rate and enzyme activities of pollen, while A65, A175, Gamato 5, and Kaliurang 206 did not show significant differences on pollen germination between GA3 0.06 mmol/L and 0 mmol/L
Summary
The majority of seeds are undesirable features in many crops, edible fruit. Some seeds have a bitter taste, are hard, and cause a digestive problem. Seeds and their cavities could be replaced by edible fruit tissue and it is more desirable than seeded fruit. Parthenocarpy is a useful trait for industrial purposes, especially the tomato sauce industry because seeds should be removed before processing in order to obtain the best quality of the sauce (Rotino et al, 2005; Sato, Peet, & Gardner, 2004). Parthenocarpy may improve the quality of the fruit through the increased sugar content of the fruit (1°Brix higher than normal fruits), high dry matter content, less acidity, less cellulose, and higher contents of carotene and lycopene than seeded fruit (Lukyanenko, 1991)
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