Abstract
In this study, skin coloration of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) growing under the dark treatment (the control) observed with a microscope to determine the distributions of pigment cells in tissue and (was ) anthocyanin in fruit skin. The cultivars/lines of eggplant in the dark treatment were grouped into three pigmentation types (photoreceptive, non-photoreceptive and middle type) for photosensitivity to fruit coloration. An observation of skin surface revealed that all of the cultivars/lines in the control have a large number of pigment cells in fruit skin. However, in the dark treatment, the cultivars/lines of the photoreceptive type have no pigment cells and the cultivars/lines of the middle type have few pigment cells. Therefore, it can be concluded that all pigments in cultivars/lines of the photoreceptive type and a part of pigments in cultivars/lines of the middle type derived from the synthetic pathway of anthocyanin require light for development. Fruit color in the absence of light in these types depends quantities of anthocyanin in a cell and the number of pigment cells in tissue (density). AVIs (Anthocyanic vacuolar inclusions) in vacuole of pigment cells are contained in the cultivars/lines which have nasunin (delphinidin 3-p-coumaroylramnosylglucoside-5-glucoside) for major anthocyanin. Therefore, it is suggested that AVIs peculiar products for eggplant with nasunin. According to the comparison of coloration, (are ) AVIs' existence is shown to have a major influence on fruit color.
