Comment by Flere-Imsaho
9 hours ago
I'm 45 and only recently realised the grapes in the UK are "seedless". Grapes with seeds was not a pleasant experience when I accidentally ate one whilst in Croatia.
9 hours ago
I'm 45 and only recently realised the grapes in the UK are "seedless". Grapes with seeds was not a pleasant experience when I accidentally ate one whilst in Croatia.
I much prefer grapes with seeds. They are much tastier and have a nicer texture in my opinion. The difference is enough that I almost consider the seedless variety to be a separate fruit altogether.
that's genetic modification for you. nature doesn't make seedless fruits
If by "genetic modification" you mean "random genetic mutation" formally known as stenospermocarpy.
Seedless grapes existed in the Mediterranean centuries ago. The now-popular Thompson seedless was brought from the Ottoman empire in 1872.
Similar story with bananas and the parthenocarpy mutation. Then you layer selective breeding on top of that to create complete sterility due to triploidy.
Others like the babaco papaya are just simple sterile interspecific hybrids.
So nature actually does make seedless fruit by accident quite often. It's just that you need humans to come along and clonally propagate them.