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Molecular Breeding for Fruit Quality
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Molecular Breeding for Fruit Quality

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 17644

Special Issue Editors

Dr. José A. Mercado

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Hortofruticultura Subtropical y Mediterránea La Mayora (IHSM-UMA-CSIC), Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: cell wall; fruit physiology; fruit biotechnology; fruit texture; genetic transformation; olive; postharvest; strawberry, subtropical fruits
Dr. Sara Posé

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Hortofruticultura Subtropical y Mediterránea “La Mayora” (IHSM-UMA-CSIC), Departamento de Botánica y Fisiología Vegetal, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: cell wall; pectins; strawberry; fleshy fruits; fruit physiology; fruit texture; AFM; immuno-based techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fruits are an essential part of human diet, providing significant amounts of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, fibers, and numerous health benefit compounds. There is a general agreement that a diet low in fruits and vegetables predisposes to numerous health problems, from cardiovascular diseases to increased rates of cancer. Despite these benefits, large groups of people in most parts of the world have a restricted access to high-quality fruits, mainly due to their elevated production and storage costs. To exacerbate this problem, agriculture–economic models predict that global climate change will lead to reduced food and vegetable availability in the following years, not only in low-income countries but also in some richer regions. In this scenario of growing world population and reduced fruit availability, increasing the production of high-quality fruits is of critical importance for human health.

Traditionally, most breeding efforts have been devoted to increasing fruit size and yield, disregarding other quality parameters, such as sensory attributes or nutritional content. Current production practices favoring early fruit harvesting and some postharvest strategies can also contribute to reducing overall fruit quality. Novel approaches are needed to deal with the future challenges of fruit production, improving fruit organoleptic properties and nutritional value, and also to be able to accommodate fruit industry with consumer preferences. Modern breeding techniques such as genetic engineering, gene edition or marker-assisted selection will be especially useful to achieve this goal.

In this Special Issue, articles (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches and methods) that focus on molecular fruit breeding at all levels, including physiology, biochemistry, genetics, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics approaches, are welcome.

Dr. José A. Mercado
Dr. Sara Posé
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

  • fleshy fruits
  • fruit biotechnology
  • fruit breeding
  • fruit quality
  • fruit metabolism
  • fruit nutritional composition

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5049 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Use of Fruit Callus Culture as a Model System to Study Color Development and Cell Wall Remodeling during Strawberry Fruit Ripening
by Pablo Ric-Varas, Marta Barceló, Juan A. Rivera, Sergio Cerezo, Antonio J. Matas, Julia Schückel, J. Paul Knox, Sara Posé, Fernando Pliego-Alfaro and José A. Mercado
Plants 2020, 9(7), 805; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9070805 - 27 Jun 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4718
Abstract
Cell cultures derived from strawberry fruit at different developmental stages have been obtained to evaluate their potential use to study different aspects of strawberry ripening. Callus from leaf and cortical tissue of unripe-green, white, and mature-red strawberry fruits were induced in a medium [...] Read more.
Cell cultures derived from strawberry fruit at different developmental stages have been obtained to evaluate their potential use to study different aspects of strawberry ripening. Callus from leaf and cortical tissue of unripe-green, white, and mature-red strawberry fruits were induced in a medium supplemented with 11.3 µM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) under darkness. The transfer of the established callus from darkness to light induced the production of anthocyanin. The replacement of 2,4-D by abscisic acid (ABA) noticeably increased anthocyanin accumulation in green-fruit callus. Cell walls were isolated from the different fruit cell lines and from fruit receptacles at equivalent developmental stages and sequentially fractionated to obtain fractions enriched in soluble pectins, ester bound pectins, xyloglucans (XG), and matrix glycans tightly associated with cellulose microfibrils. These fractions were analyzed by cell wall carbohydrate microarrays. In fruit receptacle samples, pectins were abundant in all fractions, including those enriched in matrix glycans. The amount of pectin increased from green to white stage, and later these carbohydrates were solubilized in red fruit. Apparently, XG content was similar in white and red fruit, but the proportion of galactosylated XG increased in red fruit. Cell wall fractions from callus cultures were enriched in extensin and displayed a minor amount of pectins. Stronger signals of extensin Abs were detected in sodium carbonate fraction, suggesting that these proteins could be linked to pectins. Overall, the results obtained suggest that fruit cell lines could be used to analyze hormonal regulation of color development in strawberry but that the cell wall remodeling process associated with fruit softening might be masked by the high presence of extensin in callus cultures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Breeding for Fruit Quality)
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20 pages, 4481 KiB  
Article
Transcriptional Dynamics and Candidate Genes Involved in Pod Maturation of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
by Cristina Gómez-Martín, Carmen Capel, Ana M. González, Ricardo Lebrón, Fernando J. Yuste-Lisbona, Michael Hackenberg, José L. Oliver, Marta Santalla and Rafael Lozano
Plants 2020, 9(4), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9040545 - 22 Apr 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4597
Abstract
Pod maturation of common bean relies upon complex gene expression changes, which in turn are crucial for seed formation and dispersal. Hence, dissecting the transcriptional regulation of pod maturation would be of great significance for breeding programs. In this study, a comprehensive characterization [...] Read more.
Pod maturation of common bean relies upon complex gene expression changes, which in turn are crucial for seed formation and dispersal. Hence, dissecting the transcriptional regulation of pod maturation would be of great significance for breeding programs. In this study, a comprehensive characterization of expression changes has been performed in two common bean cultivars (ancient and modern) by analyzing the transcriptomes of five developmental pod stages, from fruit setting to maturation. RNA-seq analysis allowed for the identification of key genes shared by both accessions, which in turn were homologous to known Arabidopsis maturation genes and furthermore showed a similar expression pattern along the maturation process. Gene- expression changes suggested a role in promoting an accelerated breakdown of photosynthetic and ribosomal machinery associated with chlorophyll degradation and early activation of alpha-linolenic acid metabolism. A further study of transcription factors and their DNA binding sites revealed three candidate genes whose functions may play a dominant role in regulating pod maturation. Altogether, this research identifies the first maturation gene set reported in common bean so far and contributes to a better understanding of the dynamic mechanisms of pod maturation, providing potentially useful information for genomic-assisted breeding of common bean yield and pod quality attributes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Breeding for Fruit Quality)
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16 pages, 10344 KiB  
Article
Tetraploid Induction by Colchicine Treatment and Crossing with a Diploid Reveals Less-Seeded Fruit Production in Pointed Gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)
by Jahidul Hassan, Ikuo Miyajima, Yukio Ozaki, Yuki Mizunoe, Kaori Sakai and Wasimullah Zaland
Plants 2020, 9(3), 370; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9030370 - 17 Mar 2020
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 7560
Abstract
Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) (2n = 2x = 22) is a dioecious cucurbit vegetable and green fruit that is edible after cooking. Consumers prefer to consume seedless or less-seeded fruit because seeds are unpalatable due to their hard coats. Therefore, the [...] Read more.
Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) (2n = 2x = 22) is a dioecious cucurbit vegetable and green fruit that is edible after cooking. Consumers prefer to consume seedless or less-seeded fruit because seeds are unpalatable due to their hard coats. Therefore, the cross compatibility between the diploid and induced tetraploid will be helpful for seedless or less-seeded fruit production. Thus, the present study was conducted using mature seeds that were immersed in 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.5% colchicine for 24, 48, and 72 h to induce tetraploids. These tetraploids were used as parents (male or female) in the inter-ploidy and intra-ploidy crosses. A flow cytometric analysis confirmed the induction of three tetraploids at 0.5% colchicine for 48 and 72 h soaking periods. Among these, two (2) females and one (1) male were differentiated after flower initiation. Crossing between the tetraploid’s maternal and diploid paternal parent (4x × 2x), which were revealed to be compatible, resulted in a similar fruit set rate and shape as those of the diploid. In addition, a seed number of 4x × 2x produced fruits that were drastically reduced to 1.8 seeds per fruit, whereas the natural diploid fruits had 26.4 seeds per fruit. These findings suggest that colchicine-induced tetraploid females are important genetic resources for less-seeded fruit production. The genetic stability of tetraploid clones can easily and effectively be maintained by vine cutting for advanced uses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Breeding for Fruit Quality)
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