Cell division and cessation of cell proliferation in growing fruit

In a growing population of cells, a certain proportion of cells is non-dividing and in many cases this proportion progressively increases. There are numerous examples of the loss of proliferating activity in growing plant tissues. Fruit growth starts after bloom with intensive cell division, but the proliferating activity of the cells slows down as development proceeds and the cell population enters the stage of cell enlargement. We analyzed the dynamics of cell number change during the early period of fruit development after full bloom by means of a deterministic model. The model takes into consideration a progressive diminishing of the cell proliferating potential after each mitotic cycle. The rate of decrease of proliferating potential was estimated by applying the model to the observed cell population dynamics in tomato fruit. A comparison was made with the dynamics of the cell population in peach fruit.