Final answer:
Seedless fruit can occur in nature due to spontaneous mutation or apomixis, but it is more commonly produced through human-led breeding efforts. Parthenocarpy and apomixis can lead to the development of seedless fruits without fertilization, but such occurrences are typically not favored evolutionarily in nature.
Step-by-step explanation:
Seedless fruit can indeed be produced in nature without human interference, and this can be considered as a result of a spontaneous mutation. In nature, the phenomenon known as parthenocarpy can lead to the production of seedless fruits, where fruits develop without the seeds being fully formed or in some cases, without any seeds at all. While parthenocarpy is generally considered evolutionarily unfavorable because seeds are essential for plant dispersal and survival, it can occur spontaneously. However, unless such traits are selected and perpetuated by human agriculturalists, these spontaneous occurrences are unlikely to be passed on in the wild.
Another natural form of seedless fruit production is through apomixis, where seeds can develop without fertilization, producing clonal offspring identical to the parent plant. Although not common, these natural methods show that seedless fruits could potentially arise without direct human intervention. However, most commercial seedless fruits, like seedless watermelons and many varieties of bananas, are actually the result of plant breeding efforts, where humans have induced or exploited mutations or reproductive mechanisms to produce sterile or seedless varieties.