UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, RAICHUR

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, RAICHUR

DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE

Course: Seminar –II, HRT-551(0+1)

Seminar Report:
“Potential of Parthenocarpy and its Utilization in Vegetable
Production”

Submitted By
SHARATKUMAR SHANKRAPPA HULLUR
PG19AGR11069
Sr. M.Sc. Horticulture

2020-21
DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE
UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
RAICHUR – 584 104

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 UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, RAICHUR
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, RAICHUR
DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar entitled “Potential of Parthenocarpy and its Utilization in
Vegetable Production” submitted by Mr. SHARATKUMAR SHANKRAPPA HULLUR for the
seminar-II to the DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE, is a record of seminar report prepared
by him during the period of his study in University of Agricultural Science, Raichur.

Place : Raichur
Date : 18, June, 2021

Professor and head

Department of horticulture
College of agriculture, Raichur

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 Contents

Sl.No. Particulars Page no

1 Introduction

2 Advantages and quality parameters of parthenocarpic

vegetable crops
3 Ideotype and types of parthenocarpy

4 Genetics of parthenocarpy

5 Methods to induce parthenocarpy

6 Work done in the World and India

7 Conclusion

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 List of tables

Sl. No Tables title Page no

1 plant growth regulators for parthenocarpic fruit development

Fruit growth (fresh weight, length and diameter) of Momordica charantia

2 L. var. Makiling treated with three levels (0, 20 and 100 ppm) of NAA
and GA3 at the 5-leaf stage

Effects of three levels (0, 20 and 100 ppm) of NAA and GA3 on foliar
3 chlorophyll (mg ml-1) of Momordica charantia L. treated at the 5-leaf
stage.

Mean effect of plant growth regulators (H) and stage of application (A)
4 on fruit weight (g) and fruit set in parthenocarpic fruit development in
Kakrol

Parthenocarpic fruit development in some vegetable crops by using

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biotechnological tools

Number and percentage of fruits set per number of emasculation flowers,

6 average weight and diameters of fruits obtained from selfed and
emasculated flowers

Eggplant production of parthenocarpic hybrids and their respective

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controls at summer time

8 works done in world

9 work done in India (public sector)

10 work done in India (private sector)

List of figures

Sl. No figure title Page no

1 Obligatory and Facultative Types of parthenocarpy

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 2 Artificial parthenocarpy
3 optimal and higher temperature
Temperature effects on per centage of seeded fruit, parthenocarpic fruit,
4 undeveloped flowers and aborted flowers in optimal and high temperature
treatments.
Parthenocarpy in Momordica charantia L. after treatment with three levels
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(0, 20 and 100ppm) of NNA (A) and GA3 (B).
Fruit development with 2, 4-D treatment which started turning (A) green
6 (B) yellow 10 days after spraying, (C) 2, 4-D treated fruits in Kakrol (no
seeds)
7 Tomato fruits transgenic for the DefH9-iaaM gene
Eggplant fruits from the open field summer trial. Left, uncut and cut fruit
8 of the transgenic hybrid P10; Right, cut and uncut fruit of the C10 control
hybrid.
Photos of pollen by scanning electron microscopy. A. Control. B. x-ray
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irradiated pollen treatment
Effect of X- ray irradiation on fruit set of watermelonWatermelon fruits
developed after pollination by X- ray irradiated pollen compared to a
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normal fruit in ‘Benikodama’ (upper photograph) and Fujihikari TR’
(lower photograph).
Relationship between dose of X-irradiation and number of seeds in cultivar
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`Benikodama‘ and ‘Fujihikari’

INTRODUCTION:
What are parthenocarpy?

In botany and horticulture, parthenocarpy is the natural or artificially induced production of

fruit without fertilization of ovules, which makes the fruit seedless. Stenospermocarpy may
also produce apparently seedless fruit, but the seeds are actually aborted while they are still
small. Parthenocarpy (or stenospermocarpy) occasionally occurs as a mutation in nature; if it

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affects every flower, the plant can no longer sexually reproduce but might be able to propagate
by apomixis or by vegetative means. Examples of this include many citrus varieties that
undergo nucellar embryony for reproduction, instead of solely sexual reproduction, and can
yield seedless fruits.

However, parthenocarpy of some fruits on a plant may be of value. Up to 20% of the

fruits of wild parsnip are parthenocarpic. The seedless wild parsnip fruit are preferred by
certain herbivores and so serve as a "decoy defense" against seed predation. Utah juniper has a
similar defense against bird feeding. The ability to produce seedless fruit when pollination is
unsuccessful may be an advantage to a plant because it provides food for the plant's seed
dispersers. Without a fruit crop, the seed dispersing animals may starve or migrate.

In some plants, pollination or another stimulation is required for parthenocarpy, termed

stimulative parthenocarpy. Plants that do not require pollination or other stimulation to produce
parthenocarpic fruit have vegetative parthenocarpy. Seedless cucumbers are an example of
vegetative parthenocarpy, seedless watermelon is an example of stenospermocarpy as they are
immature seeds (aborted ones).

Plants that moved from one area of the world to another may not always be accompanied by
their pollinating partner, and the lack of pollinators has spurred human cultivation of
parthenocarpic varieties. Some parthenocarpic varieties have been developed as genetically
modified organisms. Null (1902) coined the term parthenocarpy. The word parthenocarpy
comprises of two words – Parthenos – Virgin and Carpy – fruit.

Types of Parthenocarpy

Parthenocarpy can be categorized into two parts, which are: Vegetative and Stimulative
parthenocarpy.

Vegetative Parthenocarpy

This generally takes place without pollination and due to the absence of pollination, no
seeds are produced within the fruits.

Stimulative Parthenocarpy

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 Stimulative parthenocarpy generally takes place without the process of fertilization.
This condition occurs when the ovipositor of a wasp is inserted into the ovary of a flower and
can also be achieved by flowing air or plant growth regulators into the unisexual flowers that
are present inside the syconium.

Benefits of Parthenocarpy

 This is healthier and the results are achieved easily.

 Provides seedless fruits and improves quality.
 It reduces the complete cost of the cultivation.
 This improves crop yield without using organic pesticides.
 Plant growth regulators are natural and the fruits produced are larger.
 Parthenocarpy keeps the insects and pests away without using chemicals because there
is no requirement of pollinating insects for the formation of fruits. This protects the
plants from being attacked by pesticides.
 Early maturing – Parthenocarpic cucumber.
 Vertical fruit harvest - By growing of parthenocarpic cucumbers in green houses,
continuous fruit set on vine will give more profits.
 No effect of “crown set inhibition” in parthenocarpic cucumber, so fruits are continuous

Quality parameters of parthenocarpic vegetables compared to seeded vegetables

Watermelon

Seedless watermelon bear more fruit/plant and tough rind making them suitable for
long distance transport

Gherkin

Seedless pickled gherkins are more crunchy, firmer and fleshier than its seeded variety

Tomato

Seedless tomatoes have been reported to be tastier, contain more dry-matter, contain
more sugars, less acidity, have fruit size and jelly fill in the locules comparable with those
found in the seeded fruits

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Brinjal

High yield and good fruit quality)

Bell pepper

Parthenocarpic fruit growth reduces yield fluctuation and blossom- end rot (BER).

Ideotype of parthenocarpic trait

The ideotype of the parthenocarpic trait should has to satisfy the following three
features.

1. Production of marketable fruits without Pollination.

2. Percentage of fruit setting under adverse conditions should be similar to that
obtained under favorable growth conditions.
3. Phenotypic expression of the trait should not display any negative effect on
both intrinsic and extrinsic fruit quality.

Types of parthenocarpy

• Obligatory (genetic)- The expression of parthenocarpic trait is not influenced by

external factors.

• Facultative – Facultative parthenocarpy occurs due to adverse environmental

conditions for pollination and fertilization.

• Natural parthenocarpy has been reported in various crops like tomato (Fos et al., 2000),
eggplant (Prohens and Nuez, 2008), cucumber (Yin et al., 2010) and capsicum (Tiwari
et al., 2011)

• Genetic parthenocarpy can solve the problem of low pollen viability and poor pollen
release, which often occurs under low light conditions, low or high temperatures under
open and greenhouse conditions (Hazra and Dutta, 2010)

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Artificial parthenocarpy

• Artificial parthenocarpy is achieved by external application of plant hormones, by using

irradiated pollen or through biotechnological approaches (Tiwari et al., 2012)

• The exogenous use of irradiated pollen, natural or synthetic auxins and gibberellins
increases IAA content during ovary development thus leading to development of fruit
without fertilization

Methods to induce parthenocarpy

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 1. Environmental factor
2. Phytohormones
3. Conventional breeding
4. Biotechnological approaches
5. Mutation
6. Polyploidy

 Environmental factors:

• Temperature - Both high and low temperature induce parthenocarpy

• Low temperature promotes parthenocarpic fruit set in tomato, summer squash, bell
pepper (freezing temperature ≤ 5°C) and eggplant (7 to 10°C) (Fuzhong et al., 2005)

• Other environmental factors like low irradiance, severe water stress and high irradiance
have also been reported to induce parthenocarpy in vegetables

CASE STUDY -1

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Formation of parthenocarpic fruit, undeveloped flowers and aborted flowers
in tomato under moderately elevated temperatures
Sato et al., 2001
Scientia Horticulturae., 90: 243-254.

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 Fig.
4. Temperature effects on per centage of seeded fruit, parthenocarpic fruit, undeveloped
flowers and aborted flowers in optimal and high temperature treatments.
 Phytohormones
Exogenous auxin application to flowers for induction of parthenocarpy was first
reported by Gustafson (1936). Auxin, GA and Cytokinin induce parthenocarpy.

Use of plant growth regulators for parthenocarpic fruit development

Crop Growth regulator Stage of Type of parthenocarpy

treatment
Brinjal GA3 @ 2700 ppm; 2,4-D @ At anthesis GA3 induced the completely
2.5 ppm (foliar spray) seedless fruits during all
seasons.2,4-D induced the
development of degenerated
seeds.
Tomato CPPU @ 100mg/l, GA3 @ At anthesis 100% seedless fruit set
200 mg/l
Kakrol 2,4-D @ 50 ppm At the time of 90 % parthenocarpy
anthesis
Kakrol 2,4-D @ 100 ppm Pre - anthesis Complete parthenocarpy

Cucumber GA @ 100 mg/l Pre - anthesis

Watermelon CPPU @ 100-200– ppm At anthesis

Muskmelon CPPU @ 20 ppm After anthesis

Pumpkin GA3 @ 150ppm Prior to anthesis 96.9% seedless fruit

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CASE STUDY -2
Effects of Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and Gibberellic acid (GA3) for
induction of parthenocarpy in bittergourd (Momordica charantia)
Melissa et al., 2005
The Philippine Agricultural Scientist., 88 (1): 35-39.
Table 2. Fruit growth (fresh weight, length and diameter) of Momordica charantia L. var.
Makiling treated with three levels (0, 20 and 100 ppm) of NAA and GA3 at the 5-leaf stage.

  Treatment (ppm) Fresh weight Length

(g/fruit) (cm/fruit)

NAA 0 21.82a 10.57a

2.07b
20 36.62b 13.90b
2.12b
100 31.90a 10.40b
2.50a
GA3 0 25.82a 13.57
1.81a 20 36.68b 14.00
2.14b
100 35.28a 13.80
2.18a

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Fig. 5. Parthenocarpy in Momordica charantia L. after treatment with three levels (0, 20 and
100ppm) of NNA (A) and GA3 (B).

Table 3. Effects of three levels (0, 20 and 100 ppm) of NAA and GA3 on foliar chlorophyll
(mg ml-1) of Momordica charantia L. treated at the 5-leaf stage.

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CASE STUDY -3
EFFECT OF PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS FOR INDUCTION OF
PARTHENOCARPIC FRUIT IN KAKROL (Momordica dioica Roxb.)

Chowdhury et al., 2007

Bangladesh J. Pl. Breed. Genet., 20(2): 17-22.

Table 4. Mean effect of plant growth regulators (H) and stage of application (A) on fruit weight
(g) and fruit set in parthenocarpic fruit development in Kakrol

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Fig. 6. Fruit development with 2, 4-D treatment which started turning (A) green (B) yellow 10
days after spraying, (C) 2, 4-D treated fruits in Kakrol (no seeds)

Conventional breeding

Conventional breeding comprises of two fundamental steps:

i). Generating a breeding population that is segregating for the parthenocarpic trait
of one parental genotype

ii). Selecting individual progeny from the segregating population that combine
parthenocarpy with the desirable traits of the non- parthenocarpic parent.

A breeding population is generated using two types of crosses:

Interspecific hybridization – mostly used e.g., IVT- line 1 of tomato

Intraspecific hybridization – Various parthenocarpic lines have been generated

using intraspecific hybridization e.g., Severianin, IVT-line 2 etc. in tomato and ‘AE-
P’ lines and ‘Talina’ in eggplant (Kikuchi et al., 2008).

Development of parthenocarpic tomato cultivars

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17
 Oregon Pride Oregon Star
Development and maintenance of parthenocarpic lines in cucumber

Monoecious cultivars (pc pc) x Identify female (Pc Pc).

F1

F2 x (1PcPc: 2Pcpc: 1pcpc)

BC1 (Pc pc)

BC1 F1 (1PCPC: 2 PC pc: 1pcpc

BC 2 (Pc pc)

Follow this step of selfing and back crossing till BC5 or BC6 generation.

BC6

Selfing BC6 progenies

Selection for early and profused fruiting plants

New isogenic parthenocarpic line of A

Maintenance of parthenocarpic lines

• The maintenance of parthenocarpic lines is a major problem. The male

flowers are induced by using plant growth regulators e.g., GA3 @ 150 ppm
(3-4 spray at 2-3 true leaves stage), silver nitrate @ 200 ppm (1-2 spray) or
GA3 + GA7. Parthenocarpic fruits produce fewer seed per pollinated fruit
than the non- parthenocarpic fruits.

Silver Nitrate spray

Parthenocarpic lines of cucumber

Male flowers appear on parthenocarpic plants

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 Hand pollination

Selfed fruit

Development of Parthenocarpic F1 hybrid “Anominori” in egg plant

AE P08 X AE P01

Anominori

Biotechnological approaches

Parthenocarpic fruit development in some vegetable crops by using

biotechnological tools

Gene Biotechnological tool Role of gene in plant Vegetable crop

Tomato,
Auxin
DefH9-iaaM Transgenics eggplant,
synthesis
cucumber,

Auxin
rolB Transgenics Tomato
signaling

Auxin
CHS Gene silencing Tomato
transport

Auxin
AUCSIA Gene silencing Tomato
response

Gibberellin
DELLA Gene silencing Tomato
response

CASE STUDY-4
Genetic engineering of parthenocarpic fruit development in tomato

Rotino et al., 2000

Molecular Breeding., 5: 463–470.

Table 6. Number and percentage of fruits set per number of emasculation flowers, average
weight and diameters of fruits obtained from selfed and emasculated flowers

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Fig. 7. Tomato fruits transgenic for the DefH9-iaaM gen

CASE STUDY-5
Effect of Genetically modified parthenocarpic eggplants on fruit
productivity under both greenhouse and open field cultivation

Nazzareno et al., 2000

BMC Biotechnology., 2: 4-8.

Table 7: Eggplant production of parthenocarpic hybrids and their respective controls at

summer time.

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Fig. 8. Eggplant fruits from the open field summer trial. Left, uncut and cut fruit of the

transgenic hybrid P10; Right, cut and uncut fruit of the C10 control hybrid.

Mutation

• Spontaneous mutations occur naturally and are used in classical breeding programmers.

• Good example of this is the parthenocarpic sha-pat mutants in the tomato line,
Montfavet 191.

• Various radiation treatments, such as helium accelerated ions in tomato (Masuda et al.,
2004), X-ray in watermelon (Sugiyama and Morishita, 2000; Kawamura et al., 2018)
and gamma irradiation in watermelon (Sugiyama and Morishita, 2001) have been used
successfully to generate parthenocarpic mutants.

Production of seedless watermelon using X- ray irradiated pollen

• Sugiyama and Morishita (2000) developed a method for producing seedless
watermelon in diploid plants by using X-ray irradiated pollen.

Pollen

X-ray

Pollination

Fertilization

Embryo stops development and degenerates

Ovules of degenerating embryo do not develop

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 Fruits develop with abortive seeds

fig.9. Photos of pollen by scanning electron microscopy. A. Control. B. x-ray irradiated

pollen treatment

fig. 10 -Effect of X- ray irradiation on fruit set of watermelonWatermelon fruits developed

after pollination by X- ray irradiated pollen compared to a normal fruit in ‘Benikodama’
(upper photograph) and Fujihikari TR’ (lower photograph).

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 Fig. 11. Relationship between dose of X-irradiation and number of seeds in cultivar
`Benikodama‘ and ‘Fujihikari’. 

Polyploidy

• The triploid background has been utilized to yield parthenocarpic fruit

• In watermelon seedless fruits with only residual integuments are obtained from F1
hybrid plants derived from cross between tetraploid and diploid parents (Kihara, 1951)

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 Production of seedless watermelon

Work done in world:

Tomato Brinjal Cucumber Watermelon Zucchini
Severianin AE-P 01 Sweet Success Red Rock Easy Pick
Gold Squash
Santium AE-P 08 Euro- Amiga Easy Pick
American Green Squash
Oregon Pride Talina 1 Socrates Round Trip Partenon

Oregon Star Talina 2 Tyria Cavili

IVT line-1 Diva Argo

IVT line -2 Tasty Jade

Oregon T5-4 County Fair 83

Oregon Excelsior
Cherry

Work done in India

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 Public sector

IIVR,
IARI, New IARI, New GBPUAT, IIHR
Varanasi KAU
Delhi Delhi Pantnagar (Waterm
(Pointed (Watermelon)
(Cucumber) (Watermelon) (Cucumber) elon)
gourd)

Pant
Arka
DPaC-6 Pusa Bedana Parthenocarpic IIVRPG- 105 Shonima (Red)
Madhura
Cucumber- 2

Pant
DPaC- 9 Parthenocarpic Swarna (Yellow)
Cucumber- 3

DPaC-
10

Parthenocarpic hybrids of Cucumber from private sector

S. No. Name of the hybrid Source of the seed

Isatis Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd.
1.
Hilton Nickerson Zwaan
2.
Kian Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd.
3.

NS- 492 Namdhari Seeds India Pvt. Ltd.

4.
NS- 498 Namdhari Seeds India Pvt. Ltd.
5.
Aviva Tropic Seeds Pvt. Ltd.
6.
Asma Tropic Seeds Pvt. Ltd.
7.
Claudia Tropic Seeds Pvt. Ltd.
8.

Conclusion:
• Parthenocarpy is an important trait for improving the yield, quality and processing traits
of vegetable crops.

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 • This trait proved highly useful in green house cultivation, particularly in cross-
pollinated vegetable crops.

• Exploitation of biotechnological tools can enhance the efficiency and identification of

parthenocarpic genes across the crops for the benefit of mankind.

REFERENCES:

Barchi, L., Lanteri, S., Portis, E., Stagel, A., Vale, G., Toppino, L. and Rotino, G. L.,
2010. Segregation distortion and linkage analysis in eggplant ( Solanum
melongena L.). Genome., 53:805–15.
Chowdhury, R. N., Rasul, M. G., Islam, A. K. M. A., Mian, M. A. K. and. Ahmed, J. U., 2007.
Effect of plant growth regulators for induction of parthenocarpic fruit in kakrol
(Momordica dioica Roxb.). Bangladesh J. Pl. Breed. Genet., 20(2): 17-22.
Fos, M., Nuez, F. and Garcia, J., 2000, The gene pat-2, which induces natural
parthenocarpy, alerts the gibberellin content in unpollinated tomato ovaries.
Plant physiol., 112: 471-479.
Hazra, p. and Dutta, A. K., 2010. Expression of Parthenocarpy in Tomato Due to Temperature
and Pollination Treatment. International Journal of Vegetable Science., 16(3):222-232.
Jaafar, H., Black, C. R. and Atherton, J. G., 1994. Water relations, dry matter
distribution and reproductive development of sweet pepper ( Capsicum annuum).
Aspects of Applied Biology., 38: 299-306.
Kihara, H. 1951 Genome-Analysis in Triticum and Aegilops. National Institute of Genetics.,
12: 101-122.

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Kikuchi, K., Yin, C., Hochgreb, T., Poss, K. D. and Stainier, D.Y., 2008. Hand
Regulates Extracellular Matrix Remodeling Essential for Gut-Looping
Morphogenesis in Zebrafish. Developmental Cell., 18(6): 973-984.
Kim, I. S., Okubo, H. and Fujieda, K., 1994. Studies on parthenocarpy in Cucumis
sativus L.: IV. Effects of exogenous growth regulators on induction of
parthenocarpy and endogenous hormone levels in cucumber ovaries. Journal of
Korean Society of Horticultural Sciences., 35:187-95.
Melissa, F. Tolentino. and Nina, M., 2005. Effects of Naphthaleneacetic Acid (NAA) and
Gibberellic Acid (GA3) On Fruit Morphology, Parthenocarpy, Alkaloid Content and
Chlorophyll Content in Bittergourd (Momordica charantia L. ‘Makiling’) Effects of
Naphthaleneacetic Acid and Gibberellic Acid on Bitter gourd. The philippine
agricultural scientist., 88(1): 35-39.
Nazzareno, A., Federico, R., Gabriele, V., Domenico, P., Michela, Z., Tiziana, P. and
Giuseppe, R., 2002 Genetically modified parthenocarpic eggplants: improved fruit
productivity under both greenhouse and open field cultivation. BMC Biotechnology
41(2):315-321.
Prohens, J. and Nuez, F., 2008, Vegetables II, Springer, New York, 249-323.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-74110-9_7
Rotino, G. L., Nadia, F., Sara, S., Tiziana, P., Chiara, C. and Angelo, S., 2000, Genetic
engineering of parthenocarpic fruit development in tomato. Molecular Breeding 5:
463–470.
Sato, S., Peet, M. and Gardner., 2001, Formation parthenocarpic fruit, undeveloped
flower and aborted flowers in tomto under moderately elevated temperatures.
Scientia horticulturae., 90: 243-254.
Tiwari, P., Kumar, B., Kaur, M., Kaur, G. and Kaur, H., 2011. Phytochemical screening and
extraction: A review. Internationale Pharmaceutica Sciencia1., (1): 98-106.

Chairman

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