The cessation of tomato fruit growth has been associated with the appearance of three 'wall-bound' peroxidase isozymes in the skin of tomato fruit. However, the presence of these isozymes in the ionically eluted 'wall-bound' fraction may be an artefact of either non-specific binding of symplastic peroxidase to the cell wall, or isozymes bound to membranes included in the 'wall-bound' fraction. ...

The efficacy of an edible chitosan coating (CHI; 4 mg/mL) and Origanum vulgare L. essential oil (OVEO; 1.25 μL/mL) for maintaining the quality of cherry tomato fruit during storage at room (25°C; 12 days) and cold (12°C; 24 days) temperatures was assessed. CHI and OVEO in combination showed in vitro fungicidal effects against R. stolonifer and Aspergillus niger. CHI-OVEO coating reduced the inc...

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 format...

Biweekly field visits starting from January to the end of April 2011 were conducted to tomato fields (open and plastic houses) heavily infested with the tomato borer Tuta absoluta, in order to survey natural enemies associated with this pest. Three hemipterans were found: Orius albidipennis, Orius sp. (Anthocoridae) and Nesidiocoris tenuis (Miridae). In addition, the parasitic wasp Bracon (Habr...

Peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7)-mediated stiffening of cell walls within the fruit skin of tomato is hypothesized to regulate fruit growth. However, to date, there is no experimental evidence demonstrating that peroxidase affects the mechanical properties of skin tissue. Here, the mechanical properties of skin strips excised from a range of fruits at different ages were determined using an 'Instron' u...

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...

In the context of complex field problems compatibility of an efficacious insecticide with other agrochemicals normally used in the field is essential. In this view emamectin benzoate 5 SG 11 g a.i. ha -1 was tested with commonly used insecticide, fungicide and fertilizers. Studies were conducted in both laboratory (physical and phytotoxcity experiment) and field experiments (bio efficacy and ph...

Tomato fruit is renowned for its high concentration of phyto-nutrients such as lycopene and carotenoids, overall contribution to nutrition and human health. The effect of antisense suppression of ethylene receptor genes LeETR1 and LeETR2 over the quality of tomato fruit was investigated in this paper. During the different stages of ripening, the fruit of antisense transgenic tomatoes of ale1 an...

The ripening inhibitor (rin) mutant tomato yields non-ripening fruit, and the rin hybrid fruit (RIN/rin) shows an intermediate phenotype between the wild and mutant fruit, that is, red-ripe and extended shelf life. We found by a microarray analysis that the genes encoding possible allergenic proteins were expressed at a significantly lower level in the rin hybrid fruit than in the wild-type fru...