A fruit can be defined as a mature ovary. Fruit development can generally be considered to occur in four phases, viz., fruit set phase, rapid cell division, cell enlargement, and maturation and ripening. Generally, fruit development follows a sigmoid growth. But, in case of stone fruits and some other fruits double sigmoid growth curve is noticed. Fruit set normally requires the full completion of fertilization, although in some plants fertilization can be bypassed leading to the formation of a seedless fruit, a process referred to as parthenocarpy. Ruan et al., (2012) put forwarded sugar signalling model and multihormonal model, which regulate the fruit set process. After fruit set, cell division and cell enlargement phases are regulated by hormones and the hormonal environments are again governed by seeds. |
