Fruit organ cultures

The culture of fruit tissues as whole organs or isolated tissue sections has been conducted with various species (1). Whole, isolated ovaries have been successfully cultured to give rise to mature fruits (e.g., strawberry). Typically, however, when an isolated portion of the fruit tissue is introduced into a sterile environment, it immediately loses structural integrity and degenerates into a rapidly dividing callus mass (2). Loss of structural integrity is correspondingly associated with an alteration of physiology that is subsequently reflected in the production of an altered metabolism. Therefore, a meaningful study of fruit development using callus derived from fruit tissues is often not possible. Recently, we studied the parameters involved in the maintenance of citrus fruit tissue integrity (2). In this paper, the culture of isolated fruit tissues, as well as half and whole fruit culture, is demonstrated using the lemon fruit (Fig. 1-3).