Coffee quality is directly related to the harvest and post harvest conditions. Non-uniform maturation of coffee fruits, combined with inadequate harvest, negatively affects the final quality of the product. Pectin methylesterase (PME) plays an important role in fruit softening due to the hydrolysis of methylester groups in cell wall pectins. In order to characterize the changes occurring d...

Fruit ripening is one of the developmental processes accompanying seed development. The tomato is a well-known model for studying fruit ripening and development, and the disassembly of primary cell walls and the middle lamella, such as through pectin de-methylesterified by pectin methylesterase (PE) and depolymerization by polygalacturonase (PG), is generally accepted to be one of the major cha...

Softening, a common phenomenon in many fruits, is a well coordinated and genetically determined process. However, the process of flesh softening during ripening has rarely been described in hawthorn. In this study, we found that 'Ruanrou Shanlihong 3 Hao' fruits became softer during ripening, whereas 'Qiu JinXing' fruits remained hard. At late developmental stages, the firmness of 'Ruanrou Shan...

Pawpaw fruit were harvested at the advent of the ripening process and were ripened at room temperature. Based on fruit fi rmness and respiration and ethylene production rates at harvest and during ripening, fruit were classifi ed into one of four categories: preripening (no to very slight loss of fi rmness; preclimacteric), early ripening (some softening; increasing rates of ethylene and CO2 pr...

In order to investigate the physiological role of ethylene in the initiation and subsequent progression of softening, pear fruit were treated with propylene, an analogue of ethylene or 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), a gaseous inhibitor of ethylene action at the preclimacteric or ripening stages. The propylene treatment at the pre-ripe stage stimulated ethylene production and flesh softening whil...

Studies on fruit maturity of avocado and related topics of subsequent storage and handling procedures have resulted in a substantial literature concerning the morphological and biochemical sequences which occur in the fruit structure. The unique high oil content of the fruit has stimulated extensive investigations into the nature of the constituents which are involved in the development of this...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Many fruits soften during ripening, which is important commercially and in rendering the fruit attractive to seed-dispersing animals. Cell-wall polysaccharide hydrolases may contribute to softening, but sometimes appear to be absent. An alternative hypothesis is that hydroxyl radicals ((•)OH) non-enzymically cleave wall polysaccharides. We evaluated this hypothesis by using ...

The ripening behavior of the native American pawpaw (Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal.) fruit was studied immediately after harvest and after 1 month of 4 8C storage. Fruit were harvested at two different maturity stages. Fruit that were unripe (minimal softening evident) at harvest exhibited respiratory and ethylene climacterics at 3 and 5 days postharvest, respectively, at ambient temperature, and ...

Apricots (Prunus armeniaca L.), a kind of climacteric fruits, are favored by consumers for their flavor and texture, but they are highly perishable. Apricots soften rapidly after harvest. Once softened, they are easily damaged such as latent damage, which limits their marketing time [1, 2]. Therefore, a common practice for handling and storing apricots is early harvest and applying postharvest ...