how let's start with the female parent plant young watermelon seedlings are
1:44treated with a chemical called colchicine which prevents proper
1:48splitting of the chromosomes during mitosis and results in plants that are
1:52tetraploid containing four copies of each chromosome
1:56when these tetraploid plants undergo meiosis instead of creating a haploid
2:00daughter cell with only one copy of each chromosome they actually create a
2:05diploid daughter cell with two copies of each chromosome
2:08if you cross this with haploid pollen from a normal water Mountain plant you
2:12wind up with a triploid watermelon progeny and watermelons do not like
2:17having three copies of each chromosome these three copies of each chromosome
2:20can't properly separate during meiosis leading two unsuccessful fertilization
2:25leading to a watermelon plants they can't properly produce seeds now I think
2:30that's a pretty tasty genetic trick
2:32go forth to science