title: Integrating Physiology and Architecture in Models of Fruit Expansion.
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.
authors.affiliation: INRIA/CIRAD/INRA Project-team Virtual Plants, UMR AGAPMontpellier, France; INRA PSH, Domaine Saint PaulAvignon, France.
authors.forename: Mikolaj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cieslak
authors.affiliation: INRIA/CIRAD/INRA Project-team Virtual Plants, UMR AGAPMontpellier, France; INRA PSH, Domaine Saint PaulAvignon, France.
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cheddadi
authors.affiliation: INRIA/CIRAD/INRA Project-team Virtual Plants, UMR AGAP Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boudon
authors.affiliation: INRA PSH, Domaine Saint Paul Avignon, France.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Baldazzi
authors.affiliation: INRA PSH, Domaine Saint Paul Avignon, France.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Génard
authors.affiliation: INRIA/CIRAD/INRA Project-team Virtual Plants, UMR AGAP Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Godin
authors.affiliation: INRA PSH, Domaine Saint Paul Avignon, France.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bertin
keywords: fruit shape; functional-structural plant modeling; vascular patterns; virtual fruit; water and dry matter transport