Question

Why are crops such as bananas, seedless watermelons and potatoes are mutants and why are their genomes so unusual? why are these mutant plants desirable?

Answer 1

Since certain crops grow with undesirable or commercially useless qualities, they are mutated in laboratories to get the desired qualities or increase a certain trait. Crops mentioned such as banana, seedless watermelon and potatoes possess certain qualities that make them hard to cultivate/process or consume or both. Mutated crops also have lower chances of getting infected with diseases (example banana) which makes it more profitable to the producers. In the case of watermelon, the consumers prefer seedless as organic, non-GMO watermelons have large quantities of seeds in them and other reasons would include the chances of getting infected with pests or spoil easily. Mutated potatoes have high heat tolerance, improved quality, lower salt and amylose content, etc which are preferred by consumers which explains why mutant plants are desirable by producers.  Thus to maximize the commercial values and to improve the quality mutations are performed.