Functional anatomy of vascular tissue as a tool to understand transport of water and assimilates into developing fruit

Abstract

The yield of crop plants and fruit growth depends, to a large extent, on the efficiency of the vascular tissue, in optimal conditions, as well as in stress conditions. Most of the material on which fruit growth depends is transported from the stem into the fruit through the fruit pedicel, by the xylem and phloem, so the anatomy of fruit pedicel is an important factor in understanding water transport from stem to fruit. This paper provides an overview of micro-morphological research of the tomato fruit pedicel using various methods in the Laboratory for Functional Anatomy of Crop Plants at the Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade University. Such an approach is important for understanding transport mechanisms as important physiological processes occurring during fruit growth.

Prinos gajenih biljaka i rast plodova u velikoj meri zavisi od efikasnosti provodnog sistema, kao u optimalnim uslovima, tako i u uslovima vodnog deficita. Većina materija od kojih zavisi rast plodova, transportuje se u plod kroz peteljku ploda ksilemom i floemom, pa je tako anatomija peteljke važan faktor za razumevanje transporta vode i asimilata. U ovom radu dat je pregled mikromorfoloških istraživanja peteljki plodova paradajza primenom različitih metoda. Ovakav pristup je važan za razumevanje transportnih mehanizama kao važnih činilaca fizioloških procesa značajnih za rast i sazrevanje ploda.