Cryopreservation of Watermelon Pollen to Explore New Breeding Possibilities

Cryopreservation of pollen grains assist in hybridization programmes by overcoming asynchronous flowering, in conservation and exchange of important alleles in supplementary pollinations that support the breeder in genetic improvement. It helps in overcoming the time and location barriers. Watermelon is an important vegetable crop where fruit set is highly influenced by the quality of pollen grain and external weather conditions. For this, high-quality pollen, collection, storage, and timely utilization are essential. Once again fascination for seedless watermelon through pollen irradiation and pollination makes pollen storage a viable option. This chapter describes the collection technique, germination protocol, viable storage through cryopreservation, and their subsequent utilization as per the requirement, in a very simple and economic way. This protocol can also be followed for the preservation of different wild species of watermelon.