Abstract
Architectural properties of a fruit, such as its shape, vascular patterns, and skin morphology, play a significant role in determining the distributions of water, carbohydrates, and nutrients inside the fruit. Understanding the impact of these properties on fruit quality is difficult because they develop over time and are highly dependent on both genetic and environmental controls. We present a 3D functional-structural fruit model that can be used to investigate effects of the principle architectural properties on fruit quality. We use a three step modeling pipeline in the OpenAlea platform: (1) creating a 3D volumetric mesh representation of the internal and external fruit structure, (2) generating a complex network of vasculature that is embedded within this mesh, and (3) integrating aspects of the fruit's function, such as water and dry matter transport, with the fruit's structure. We restrict our approach to the phase where fruit growth is mostly due to cell expansion and the fruit has already differentiated into different tissue types. We show how fruit shape affects vascular patterns and, as a consequence, the distribution of sugar/water in tomato fruit. Furthermore, we show that strong interaction between tomato fruit shape and vessel density induces, independently of size, an important and contrasted gradient of water supply from the pedicel to the blossom end of the fruit. We also demonstrate how skin morphology related to microcracking distribution affects the distribution of water and sugars inside nectarine fruit. Our results show that such a generic model permits detailed studies of various, unexplored architectural features affecting fruit quality development.
Highlights
The architectural properties of a fruit, such as its size, shape, internal structure and pattern of vasculature can be remarkably diverse
We restrict our approach to the phase where fruit growth is mostly due to cell expansion and the fruit has already differentiated into different tissue types
We construct a functional-structural model of a nectarine fruit and use it to study the effect of skin microcracking on the development of fruit quality
Summary
The architectural properties of a fruit, such as its size, shape, internal structure (number of carpels, pericarp thickness, etc.) and pattern of vasculature can be remarkably diverse. In kiwifruit and other fleshy fruit such as grape vine (Rogiers et al, 2004), a shrivel disorder at the final stages of growth appears as a longitudinal pattern of softening and shrinkage starting at the stylar (blossom) end (Thorp et al, 2007). The cause of this disorder may be a consequence of reduced xylem density or hydraulic conductance that prevents adequate supply of water to the stylar end (Clearwater et al, 2012). The soluble solids content (sugar level) inside the fruit may change and ground a direct connection between the distribution of sugars inside the fruit and the biophysical properties of its skin
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