Parthenocarpic watermelon plants

A watermelon plant or plant part comprising at least one copy of a mutant allele of an endogenous gene named Watermelon Parthenocarpy gene located on chromosome 5, WAP5.1, wherein said mutant allele comprises a substitution in the codon encoding amino acid number L528 or P308 compared to the wild type protein, wherein said mutant allele confers facultative parthenocarpy when the mutant allele is in homozygous form, and wherein the wild type WAP5.1 allele encodes a protein of SEQ ID NO:

• 1 or SEQ ID NO:
• 9, or a protein comprising at least 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:
• 1 or to SEQ ID NO:
• 9.

A method for screening watermelon plants, watermelon seeds, watermelon plant parts, or DNA therefrom, for the presence of a mutant allele of a gene named WAP5.1, or for selecting a watermelon plant, seed or plant part comprising a mutant allele of a gene named WAP5.1, said method comprising the steps:

• a) analyzing whether the genomic DNA comprises a wild type WAP5.1 allele which encodes a protein of SEQ ID NO:
• 1 or 9, or a protein comprising at least 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:
• 1 or to SEQ ID NO:
• 9, and/or a mutant WAP5.1 allele which encodes a mutant protein comprising an amino acid substitution of amino acid number L528 or P308 compared to the wild type WAP5.1 protein, and optionally
• b) selecting a plant, seed or plant part comprising two copies of the wild type allele, two copies of the mutant allele or one copy of the wild type allele and one copy of the mutant allele.