Fruit Development, Ripening and Postharvest Physiology

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Development and Morphogenesis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 5035

Special Issue Editors

Department of Agriculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece
Interests: pomology; postharvest physiology; fruit metabolism and ripening; apple, peach, sweet cherry physiology
Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization Dimitra, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: genetic resources; omics; breeding yield; tree breeding; novel methods in breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development, ripening, and postharvest physiology of fruits have been a major focus of plant biology and horticulture science. Fruit maturity and ripening are complex processes which involve various physiological changes, such as sensory traits (color, texture, aroma, etc.) and molecular functions, including primary and secondary metabolism (organic acids, anthocyanin biosynthesis, etc.). These changes may occur while fruits are still attached to the plant or after harvest. Notably, there are many examples of fruits (banana, kiwifruit, tomato, etc.) which could be at a mature but unripe stage of development during harvest. In contrast, there are many species which need to ‘stay on the tree’ until a fully ripe stage (sweet cherry, strawberry, grape, etc.). It has been widely acknowledged that ethylene regulates fruit development and ripening. Nonetheless, current studies also focus on other biosynthetic processes and/or molecules which might have a key role on pre- and post-harvest fruit physiology. At present, numerous physiological, molecular, and genetic tools are used for exploiting fruit development and ripening; however, the exact mechanisms underlying these processes are still scarcely investigated. This Special Issue of Plants will shed light on various factors (agricultural practices, environmental factors, postharvest handling, etc.) which are potentially impacting the fruits’ development, ripening, and postharvest physiology. 

Dr. Evangelos Karagiannis
Dr. Ioannis Ganopoulos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fruit maturity and ripening
  • fruit growth and development
  • fruit primary and secondary metabolism
  • pre- and post-harvest handlings
  • postharvest physiology
  • environmental factors
  • transcriptomics
  • proteomics
  • metabolomics

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 4976 KiB  
Article
The Study on Sea Buckthorn (Genus Hippophae L.) Fruit Reveals Cell Division and Cell Expansion to Promote Morphogenesis
by Jing Zhao, Zhihua Zhang, Hongdan Zhou, Zengfu Bai and Kun Sun
Plants 2023, 12(5), 1005; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051005 - 22 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1162
Abstract
Due to its unique flavor and high antioxidant content, the sea buckthorn (genus Hippophae L.) fruit is increasingly favored by consumers. Developing from the perianth tube, the sea buckthorn fruit varies greatly among species in both size and shape. However, the cellular regulation [...] Read more.
Due to its unique flavor and high antioxidant content, the sea buckthorn (genus Hippophae L.) fruit is increasingly favored by consumers. Developing from the perianth tube, the sea buckthorn fruit varies greatly among species in both size and shape. However, the cellular regulation mechanism of sea buckthorn fruit morphogenesis remains unclear. This study presents the growth and development patterns, morphological changes, and cytological observations of the fruits of three Hippophae species (H. rhamnoides ssp. sinensis, H. neurocarpa, and H. goniocarpa). The fruits were monitored every 10–30 days after anthesis (DAA) for six periods in their natural population on the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. The results showed that the fruits of H. rhamnoides ssp. sinensis and H. goniocarpa grew in a sigmoid mode, while H. neurocarpa grew in an exponential mode under the complex regulation of cell division and cell expansion. In addition, cellular observations showed that the mesocarp cells of H. rhamnoides ssp. sinensis and H. goniocarpa were larger in the area with prolonged cell expansion activity, while H. neurocarpa had a higher cell division rate. Elongation and proliferation of the mesocarp cells were found to be essential factors affecting the formation of fruit morphology. Finally, we established a preliminary cellular scenario for fruit morphogenesis in the three species of sea buckthorn. Fruit development could be divided into a cell division phase and a cell expansion phase with an overlap between 10 and 30 DAA. In particular, the two phases in H. neurocarpa showed an additional overlap between 40 and 80 DAA. The description of the sea buckthorn fruit’s transformation and its temporal order may provide a theoretical basis to explore the growth mechanism of fruits and regulate their size through certain cultivation techniques. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fruit Development, Ripening and Postharvest Physiology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4831 KiB  
Article
Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of Melon bHLH Transcription Factors in Regulation of Fruit Development
by Chao Tan, Huilei Qiao, Ming Ma, Xue Wang, Yunyun Tian, Selinge Bai and Agula Hasi
Plants 2021, 10(12), 2721; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122721 - 10 Dec 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2731
Abstract
The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor family is one of the largest transcription factor families in plants and plays crucial roles in plant development. Melon is an important horticultural plant as well as an attractive model plant for studying fruit ripening. [...] Read more.
The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor family is one of the largest transcription factor families in plants and plays crucial roles in plant development. Melon is an important horticultural plant as well as an attractive model plant for studying fruit ripening. However, the bHLH gene family of melon has not yet been identified, and its functions in fruit growth and ripening are seldom researched. In this study, 118 bHLH genes were identified in the melon genome. These CmbHLH genes were unevenly distributed on chromosomes 1 to 12, and five CmbHLHs were tandem repeat on chromosomes 4 and 8. There were 13 intron distribution patterns among the CmbHLH genes. Phylogenetic analysis illustrated that these CmbHLHs could be classified into 16 subfamilies. Expression patterns of the CmbHLH genes were studied using transcriptome data. Tissue specific expression of the CmbHLH32 gene was analysed by quantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that the CmbHLH32 gene was highly expressed in female flower and early developmental stage fruit. Transgenic melon lines overexpressing CmbHLH32 were generated, and overexpression of CmbHLH32 resulted in early fruit ripening compared to wild type. The CmbHLH transcription factor family was identified and analysed for the first time in melon, and overexpression of CmbHLH32 affected the ripening time of melon fruit. These findings laid a foundation for further study on the role of bHLH family members in the growth and development of melon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fruit Development, Ripening and Postharvest Physiology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop