Presentations during this conference will demonstrate that we are beginning to understand how to control fruit ripening,manipulate fruit quality,and add,modify,or remove fruit characteristics for the benefit of producers and consumers.I will review briefly some of the evidence for these statements and then discuss the question: Could we produce flowers and fruits at will?The literature shows that application of ethylene-generating compounds to crop plants can alter flower development,causing,for example,male sterility in some cereals,and synchronous-flowering in pineapples.More recently,it has been shown that altering the expression of either ACC synthase(ACS)or ACC oxidase(ACO),both of which are required for ethylene synthesis,can,in addition to controlling ripening rate in tomato and melon,change development of sex organs in flowers of melon and tobacco.Although there have been no similar reports in the model plant Arabidopsis,we know that ethyleneinsensitive Arabidopsis have greatly reduced fertility.During our work to identify and characterize the expression of the ACO gene family we found a novel transcription factor,LeHB-1,that controls transcription of ACO1 at the onset of ripening in tomato.Unexpectedly,we also found that over-expression of LeHB-1 could alter the development of tomato flowers,creating flowers within flowers and fusion of flower organs.Most remarkably,sepals were converted to small fruits,which then ripened.At present the molecular targets of LeHB-1 are largely unknown.These results suggest that a systematic search may one day lead to the discovery of genes capable of causing the production of flowers and fruits without going through the normal developmental process.