The researchers studied how the cell walls of tomatoes change as the fruit grows. They looked at the composition and structure of pectin and hemicelluloses in the tomato pericarp at different stages of development. They found that the cell walls are continuously modified during fruit growth. Early on, there is a lot of rhamnose in the cell walls, indicating the synthesis of rhamnogalacturonan I. As the fruit grows, the structure of rhamnogalacturonan I changes. They also found changes in xyloglucans and (galacto)glucomannans, which are important hemicelluloses in tomato cell walls. The researchers discovered that pectin RGI and XyG are located at cellular junctions and in the middle lamella of young fruit, suggesting a role in cell adhesion during growth.