Organic Waste-Based Fertilizer in Hydroponics Increases Tomato Fruit Size but Reduces Fruit Quality

Silencing GRAS2 reduces fruit weight in tomato.

GRAS family transcription factors are involved in multiple biological processes in plants. Here, we report that GRAS2 plays a vital role in regulating fruit weight in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). We establish that the expression of GRAS2 was elevated in ovaries and maintained at a constant level in fertilized ovules. Reduction of GRAS2 expression in transgenic plants reduced fruit weight thro...

Tomato Fruit Quality from Organic and Conventional Production

Fruit Cracking in Tomato

dom’ reached anthesis most rapidly, while plants of ‘Mathilde Gütges’ and ‘Merritt’s Supreme’ were the slowest to f-lower. Table 2 represents days to anthesis and not days to salable color. In general, plants were salable, based on sepal color, ≈10 days before anthesis, so subtracting 10 days from data in Table 2 gives forcing times (from start to sale) for these cultivars when a 62F (17C) mini...

Tomato Fruit Pericarp

The tomato fruit consists of a thick, fleshy pericarp composed predominantly of highly vacuolated parenchymatous cells, which surrounds the seeds. During ripening, the activation of gene expression results in dramatic biochemical and physiological changes in the pericarp. The polygalacturonase (PG) gene, unlike many fruit ripening-induced genes, is not activated by the increase in ethylene horm...

Association Mapping of Main Tomato Fruit Sugars and Organic Acids

Association mapping has been widely used to map the significant associated loci responsible for natural variation in complex traits and are valuable for crop improvement. Sugars and organic acids are the most important metabolites in tomato fruits. We used a collection of 174 tomato accessions composed of Solanum lycopersicum (123 accessions) and S. lycopersicum var cerasiforme (51 accessions) ...