PIGMENT BODIES IN FRUITS OF CRIMSON AND HIGH PIGMENT LINES OF TOMATOES

Pigment bodies in fruits of crimson (ogc), high pigment (hp), and crimson-high pigment (ogc hp) lines of tomatoes were observed by electron and light microscopy and compared with those of normal red lines and a yellow cultivar. During chloroplast-chromoplast transformation, two main structurally distinct bodies are produced, their total and relative amounts apparently accounting for the entire range of colours (from very deep red to yellow) characterizing the mature fruits of these different colour lines. The long narrow crystalloids, believed to be lycopene, form in association with an extended thylakoid system; in senescing (over-ripe) fruit many of these are reduced to shorter irregular forms. The rounded globules are believed to be beta-carotene dissolved in lipid material derived from membrane lysis. Analytical results corroborate microscopic observations that the effect of the ogc gene, as compared with the r+ gene for normal red colour, is to increase the lycopene content and lower the beta-carotene content. The effect of the hp gene is to increase the levels of both pigments. The results support the view that the genes control the development of fruit pigments which affect chromoplast ultrastructure. © 1979, Annals of Botany Company.