High-resolution analysis of tomato leaf elongation: the application of novel time-series analysis techniques.

This paper demonstrates the use of a novel suite of data-based, recursive modelling techniques for the investigation of biological and other time-series data, including high resolution leaf elongation. The Data-Based Mechanistic (DBM) modelling methodology rejects the common practice of empirical curve fitting for a more objective approach where the model structure is not assumed a priori, but instead is identified directly from the data series in a stochastic form. Further, this novel approach takes advantage of the latest techniques in optimal recursive estimation of non-stationary and non-linear time-series. Here, the utility and ease of use of these techniques is demonstrated in the examination of two time-series of leaf elongation in an expanding leaf of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L. cv. Ailsa Craig) growing in a root pressure vessel (RPV). Using this analysis, the component signals of the elongation series are extracted and considered in relation to physiological processes. It is hoped that this paper will encourage the wider use of these new techniques, as well as the associated Data-Based Mechanistic (DBM) modelling strategy, in analytical plant physiology.

Regulation of leaf and fruit growth in plants growing in drying soil: exploitation of the plants' chemical signalling system and hydraulic architecture to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture.

In this paper the nature of root-to-shoot signals in plants growing in drying soil is considered in the context of their commercial exploitation in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) and other crops. Recent findings are presented on the effects of partial root drying (PRD) in the production of a glasshouse tomato crop. These findings show how an understanding of both root-to-shoot signalling mechanisms and fruit hydraulic architecture may explain observed increases in fruit quality, the differential effects of PRD on vegetative and reproductive production and the incidence of blossom end rot. Evidence is provided to support the hypothesis that the success of PRD may lie, at least in part, in the relative chemical and hydraulic isolation of the tomato fruit.