GIANT fruit, vegetables or even rice grains could appear on supermarket
shelves following the identification of the main gene that determines the size
of tomatoes. It’s the first time that a gene for a quantitative trait such as
height or weight has been found.
“We think this is a member of a new family of genes,” says Steven Tanksley of
Cornell University in New York. “The gene controls cell division very early in
flower development. The parts of the flower that become the fruit have more
cells even before they are pollinated.”
Tanksley’s team pinpointed the location of the ORFX…
