Scientists at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory recently discovered what genetically determined the difference between the tiny fruit produced by early, wild tomato plants and the one-pound tomatoes of today (pictured here next to a standard globe tomato)..

As recently reported by Peter Tarr, senior science writer for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a team of scientists at that facility not only identified the genes that control stem cell production in tomatoes, but discovered that mutations in these genes led to beefsteak tomatoes, and indicate how to purposely affect fruit size in other plants.