India, April 3 -- In a significant breakthrough for horticulture and crop improvement, scientists from Agharkar Research Institute, in collaboration with Savitribai Phule Pune University, uncovered the genetic and developmental mechanisms behind seedlessness in grapes, a trait highly valued by consumers and the global grape industry.

The study, conducted by a team led by Ravindra Patil and published in the journal, 'BMC Plant Biology', on April 1 provides new insights into the molecular and genomic basis of seedlessness, particularly focusing on pollen sterility. The research examined a seedless mutant derived from the high-yielding grape variety ARI-516, developed at ARI.

Through detailed microscopic analysis, researchers found that th...