More 60-Second Science In the last decade scientists have
managed to sequence the genomes of everything from bacteria and
fruit flies to individual human beings. But often overlooked are
the genomic sequences of our food. We know the genomes of
apples, bananas, potatoes, wheat, rice and now watermelon. A
consortium of scientists from the United States, China and
Europe has published the complete genome of the domesticated
watermelon—one of the top five consumed fresh fruits—in the
journal Nature Genetics. [Shaogui Guo et al., The draft genome
of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) and resequencing of 20 diverse
accessions] The group compared the genomes of 20 different
watermelons across three different subspecies and found it takes
roughly the same number of genes to make the sweet summer fruits
as it does to make us. They researchers also found that, in the
process of being selected for color, size and taste, domestic
watermelon lost many of the genes that helped their wild
ancestors resist disease. They hope th