Postanthesis growth of tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) as of many types of fruit relies on cell division and cell expansion, so that some of the largest cells to be found in plants occur in fleshy fruit. Endoreduplication is known to occur in such materials, which suggests its involvement in cell expansion, although no data have demonstrated this hypothesis as yet. We have analyzed pattern formation, cell size, and ploidy in tomato fruit pericarp. A first set of data was collected in one cherry tomato line throughout fruit development. A second set of data was obtained from 20 tomato lines displaying a large weight range in fruit, which were compared as ovaries at anthesis and as fully grown fruit at breaker stage. A remarkable conservation of pericarp pattern, including cell layer number and cell size, is observed in all of the 20 tomato lines at anthesis, whereas large variations of growth occur afterward. A strong, positive correlation, combining development and genetic diversity, is demonstrated between mean cell size and ploidy, which holds for mean cell diameters from 10 to 350 mm (i.e. a 32,000-times volume variation) and for mean ploidy levels from 3 to 80 C. Fruit weight appears also significantly correlated with cell size and ploidy. These data provide a framework of pericarp patterning and growth. They strongly suggest the quantitative importance of polyploidy-associated cell expansion as a determinant of fruit weight in tomato.

The transition from a green, hard, and acidic pericarp to a sweet, soft, coloured, and sugar-rich ripe fruit occurs in many unrelated fruit species. High throughput identification of differentially expressed genes in grape berry has been achieved by the use of 50-mers oligoarrays bearing a set of 3,200 Unigenes from Vitis vinifera to compare berry transcriptome at nine developmental stages. Analysis of transcript profiles revealed that most activations were triggered simultaneously with softening, occurring within only 24 h for an individual berry, just before any change in colouration or water, sugar, and acid content can be detected. Although most dramatically induced genes belong to unknown functional categories, numerous changes occur in the expression of isogenes involved in primary and secondary metabolism during ripening. Focusing on isogenes potentially significant in development regulation (hormonal control of transcription factor) revealed a possible role for several hormones (cytokinin, gibberellin, or jasmonic acid). Transcription factor analysis revealed the induction of RAP2 and WRKY genes at véraison, suggesting increasing biotic and abiotic stress conditions during ripening. This observation was strengthened by an increased expression of multiple transcripts involved in sugar metabolism and also described as induced in other plant organs during stress conditions. This approach permitted the identification of new isogenes as possible control points: a glutathione S-transferase exhibits the same expression profile as anthocyanin accumulation and a new putative sugar transporter is induced in parallel with sugar import.

The comparative analysis of a large number of plant cyclins of the A/B family has recently revealed that plants possess two distinct B-type groups and three distinct A-type groups of cyclins. Despite earlier uncertainties, this large-scale comparative analysis has allowed an unequivocal definition of plant cyclins into either A or B classes. We present here the most important results obtained in this study, and extend them to the case of plant D-type cyclins, in which three groups are identified. For each of the plant cyclin groups, consensus sequences have been established and a new, rational, plant-wide naming system is proposed in accordance with the guidelines of the Commission on Plant Gene Nomenclature. This nomenclature is based on the animal system indicating cyclin classes by an upper-case roman letter, and distinct groups within these classes by an arabic numeral suffix. The naming of plant cyclin classes is chosen to indicate homology to their closest animal class. The revised nomenclature of all described plant cyclins is presented, with their classification into groups CycA1, CycA2, CycA3, CycB1, CycB2, CycD1, CycD2 and CycD3.