Trees shedding leaves in fall signal winter is arriving soon. The abscission of cherry tomatoes from their stem can however be a matter of personal taste and consumer choice. Market analyses show that most consumers prefer buying cherry tomatoes from counters in grocery stores or fresh markets in their cluster form rather than individually in baskets and lacking the remnants of receptacula. Scientists, under the leadership of Dr. Amnon Lersa from the prominent Volcani Center in Israel, which is also one of the biggest producers and exporters of cherry tomatoes, have long been attempting to bread a variety which would allow for fully ripe fruit to remain attached to the stem.

Working closely with Slovenian scientists from the National Institute of Biology and the Department of Biology of the Biotechnical Faculty, they have published the article “Programmed cell death occurs asymmetrically during abscission in tomato« in “The Plant Cell” - the most prestigious scientific journal in the field of plant research, explaining why, how and where the abscission of a tomato’s plant organs takes place. Knowing this will allow for easier planning of the following steps in the cultivation of a new variety of cherry tomatoes.