Fruit ripening and postharvest changes in very early-harvested tomatoes

Abstract

It is well known that if a fruit is harvested extremely early its development and function are interrupted, and it may never attain full maturity and optimal quality. Reports revealing insights regarding the alterations of maturation, ripening and postharvest quality in very early picked fruits are rare. We examined the effects of early harvesting on tomatoes by characterizing different accessions at the molecular, physiological, and biochemical levels. We found that even very early-harvested fruits could achieve postharvest maturation and ripening though with some defects in pigment and cuticle formation, and seeds from very early-harvested fruits could still germinate and develop as normal and healthy plants. One critical regulator of tomato cuticle integrity, SlCER1-2, was shown to contribute to cuticle defects in very early-harvested fruits. Very early fruit harvest still allowing ripening and seed development indicate that the genetic and physiological programs of later maturation and ripening are set into motion early in fruit development and are not dependent on complete fruit expansion nor attachment to the plant.

Acknowledgements

We greatly thank Min Liu and Dr. Qingzhen Jiang (Boyce Thompson Institute Center for Plant Biotechnology Research) for providing plant transformation services. This project was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and National Science Foundation grant IOS-1855585.

Author contributions

Y.C., J.J.G. planned and designed the research. Y.C. performed the research. Y.C., X.T., Z.F., analyzed the data. Y.C., J.J.G. wrote the manuscript.

Data availability

Raw RNA-Seq reads have been deposited in the NCBI BioProject database under the accession number PRJNA1102113.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research Journal online.

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