Light has been shown to stimulate the expression of AsA biosynthetic and recycling genes in the peel of apple [31] and tomato fruit [32,44]. In vegetative tissues of rice, Arabidopsis and tomato [32,33,42,45] an induction of AsA-related genes in response to light has been also observed. In chloroplast-containing tissues, AsA plays a role in photosynthesis [33,46] and it has been suggested that high levels of AsA in the chromoplast may be related to the protection against high light stress [1].