There are several studies suggesting that tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) chromoplasts arise from chloroplasts, but are no reports showing the actual transition. Egea et al. use in situ real-time recording of pigment fluorescence to produce a video showing all chromoplasts arising from chloroplasts in mesocarp tissue. The accumulation of carotenoids is rather synchronous for all plastids in a cell, and more sudden that chlorophyll breakdown. Isolated intermediate plastids are shown to contain both carotenoids and chlorophylls.