Cell division, endoreduplication and expansion processes: setting the cell and organ control into an integrated model of tomato fruit development

Valentina Baldazzi (1, 2) , Michel Génard (2) , Nadia Bertin (2)

1 BIOCORE - Biological control of artificial ecosystems
2 PSH - Unité de recherche Plantes et Systèmes de Culture Horticoles

The development of a new organ is the result of coordinated events of cell division and expansion, in strong interaction with each other. This paper presents an improved version of a tomato model, which includes cells division, endoreduplication and expansion processes. The model is used to investigate the interaction among these developmental processes, in the perspective of a new cellular theory. In particular, different control schemes (either cell- or organ-based) are tested and simulation results are compared to observed data. The model shows that a pure cell-based control fails to reproduce the observed cell size distribution, and an organ-based control is needed in order to get realistic cell and fruit sizes. The model also supports the role of endoreduplication as an important modulator of the cell expansion potential.

Mots clés: expansion; division; endoreduplication; development; multi-scale; tomato

Domaines: Automatique; Mathématiques [math]; Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Valentina Baldazzi, Michel Génard, Nadia Bertin. Cell division, endoreduplication and expansion processes: setting the cell and organ control into an integrated model of tomato fruit development. Acta Horticulturae, 2017, 1182, pp.257 - 264. ⟨10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1182.31⟩. ⟨hal-01661920⟩