3.1.1. Macroscopic analysis
Three types of MR images of the same tomato fruit acquired on
days 1, 9 and 18 of Experiment 1 are presented in Fig. 1. The first
line (A) corresponds to the “morphological” SE images, the second
line (B) to the “short TE” GE images, and the third line (C) to the
“long TE” GE images. The SE images (A) acquired on days 1 and
9 revealed many structural details. The placenta, radial and outer
pericarps and locular tissue, as well as the seeds, were obvious on
these images. The placenta, radial and outer pericarps and locular
tissuewere also clearly visible on the “long TE” GE images, while the
contrast was poor on the “short TE” GE images in which the tissues
could hardly be identified. The seeds did not appear on GE images
because of insufficient spatial resolution of images. The SE images
changed considerably as ripening progressed, while the contrast on
the GE images remained almost unchanged.
On the first SE image (Fig. 1A, day 1) the small areas of signal
void corresponding to air spaces can be observed close to seeds.