Fruit flesh samples were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and kept in −80 °C until use.
Flesh samples were taken by cutting two wedges, each approximately one-eighth of the fruit.
For all further analyses, flesh samples were taken from the heart area of each watermelon.
Center fruit flesh samples were collected at stages of 10, 18, 28, and 34 DAP, respectively.
De-boned and skinned flesh samples were combined into 3 pools per family for lipid analysis.
Soluble sugars were sampled using HPLC applying the procedure outlined at [ 62]; ethylene was sampled using GC-flame ionization detector (FID); pH of the flesh samples were measured by pH meter (PH-03 II), PH-03 IIument Corp., China) in juice squeeZD Instrument Corp.
Two hundred milligrams of frozen watermelon flesh samples were ground to a fine powder prior to being extracted for 1 h in 10 ml of 50% ethanol at 80°C, then centrifuged at 3000 g for 10 min. This step was repeated one more time and the supernatants were then dissolved to a volumetric flask (25 ml) as extracts.
Peel (including about 1 mm of the cortical tissue) and flesh samples were collected separately from at least 50 replicate fruit at each of the following developmental stages: S1, 50 days after full bloom (DAFB); S2, 66 DAFB; S2/S3, 74 DAFB; S3, 90 DAFB; S4, 135 DAFB.
Older laboratory techniques to identify fish meat looked at the mix of proteins in flesh samples, but were unreliable, expensive and cumbersome.
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses of allicin and alliin in garlic flesh and skin extract samples were performed by Silliker, JR laboratories, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
