Shaping up the fruit

Abstract

T he final size and shape of fruits is determined by organogenesis. Organogenesis is the coordination of cell growth, cell differentiation and pat- tern formation. Individual genes have been identified that affect lateral organ growth. A majority of these character- ized growth genes in Arabidopsis affect all lateral plant organs and few of these have been placed into a regulatory net- work controlling organ growth. We have recently characterized GORDITA (GOA), a MADS-box transcription fac- tor, which represses cell expansion spe- cifically in fruits and affects overall fruit size.1 Here we provide insights into a pos- sible regulatory network in which GOA can function to regulate fruit growth. We further suggest how duplicated B-sister genes; GOA and TRANSPARENT TESTA 16 (TT16) could have acquired distinct regulatory roles