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Spontaneous Tetraploid Melons, Perry E. Nugent, Dennis T. Ray

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Since 1968, three spontaneous 4x melons (Cucumis melo L.) plants were discovered in our field or greenhouse plantings. Two were found in the cultivar Planters Jumbo and one in the virescent marker C879-52. Each of these 4x plants had rounded cotyledons, shorter internodes, thicker stems and leaves, more hairs, and smaller fruits, with larger stem and blossom scars, than their 2x counterparts. Also, their flowers, pollen grains, stomates, and seeds were larger. The discovery of a 4x virescent plant in 1987 allows easier germplasm transfer between ploidy levels. Morphological characteristics of 2x and 4x melons will allow identification without …