Hi Naveed,

they develop everything, root, shoots, leaves and fruits. It is just a dwarf variety, which is very useful for experimental work, since it requires much less space and - as far as I know has also a shorter generation time (not fully sure about the latter). You also will find images in the internet showing a "complete" plant, e.g. http://www.tomatogrowers.com/MICRO-TOM/productinfo/6536/

Best wishes,

Tony Schaeffner, Munich, Germany

Hi Naveed,

1. The miniature tomato cultivar Micro-Tom (MT) is considered a model system for tomato genetic, functional genomics and transgenesis. As a model system, MT displays traits comparable to Arabidopsis, such as small size and short life cycle (see attached picture).

2. They do produce shoots. In in vitro studies, their shoots can even be increased by introducing them an gene/allele called 'Regeneration 1' (Rg1). See attached paper.

Please also see this drawing from the attached paper, showing the shoots development in tomato cultivar Micro-Tom in Fig. 1.

"Fig. 1. Schematic representation of growth habit in tomato cv. Micro-Tom (MT): determinate (MT), indeterminate ( Sp and sft ) and semi-determinate ( sft/+ , Well and Well /+). Parameters that define growth habit are: (i) number of leaves on the primary shoot (PS) (i.e. number of leaves up to the first inflorescence); (ii) number of leaves on the main shoot (MS) (i.e. number of leaves of PS plus leaves on sympodial units (SU) following the first inflorescence); (iii) height of PS, MS and lateral shoot (LS) and iv) internode length (cm). Measurements performed 50 dag. Data are mean ± s.e.m. ( n = 10 plants). Sp = Self-pruning , sft = single flower truss , Well = Water economy locus in Lycopersicon . sft/+ and Well /+ mean heterozygote sft and Well , respectively. The genotypes MT, sft , sft/+ , Well and Well /+ are homozygous for the recessive allele self-pruning (sp). "