Preharvest Factors Influencing Postharvest Quality of Tropical and Subtropical Fruit
Climate/environment Rootstock/scion Planting design Pruning practices Pest management Irrigation Plant growth regulators Plant nutrition The goal for postharvest physiologists, whether they are work in basic or applied research, is to maximize the postharvest quali horticultural commodities. Quality relates to several factors that ca commodity specific and mean different things to different people. T consumer may perceive quality as it relates to appearance, flavor dollar value. The packinghouse handler, wholesale distributor, retailer, in contrast, may perceive quality as ease of handling, un mity of packaging, and freedom from physical and physiologi defects as well as pathological breakdown. Although there is muc learn about the mechanisms of a given tropical or subtropical fru response to the postharvest environment, past research has pro handlers with the general principles of sound commodity mana ment. These principles include temperature, relative humidity, at sphere modification, cooling, and judicious use of fungicides a waxes following harvest. These management strategies are of cr importance for tropical products given their long transit conditions a the potential need for postharvest insect disinfestation quaran treatments. This paper will examine the role of the preharvest environment how it may affect the postharvest life of tropical and subtropical fr Essentially, preharvest factors can influence both the rate of development and maturation. The preharvest environment can have a physical impact on fruit quality: for example, wind or ins scarring may reduce the packout percentage. Finally and most im tant, but much more difficult to quantify, are those effects t influence susceptibility to physiological and pathological breakdow This review will not dwell on the latter, but recognizes that t influence of preharvest factors on postharvest decay incidence severity has been well documented. One must remember that the plant exists in a dynamic environm and therefore can respond to changes to that environment i interactive fashion. The factors listed in Table 1 are neither inclusive nor mutually exclusive. Several examples will illustrate interaction between one or more preharvest factors on postharves quality.
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE VOLATILE OIL CONTENT OF THE PEEL OF IMMATURE AND MATURE ORANGES.
Introduction A study was made recently in this laboratory on some possible causes of breakdown in the peel of Washington Navel oranges. One approach to this problem was the determination and evaluation of the relative quantities of volatile oil in the peel of affected and unaffected fruits (2). It was founld early in this investigation that more information was needed than had been published on the factors influencing the oil content of orange peel. Experiments were planned, therefore, to determine the effect of age and size of fruit, and the effect of environment, on the relative amounts of oil in the peel of healthy Valencia and Washington Navel oranges. The results of these studies are reported in the present paper. They are considered to be important not only because of their bearing on the commercial production of citrus oils, but also because of the relation of the oil to certain discolorations and pittings of the peel when the oil is liberated from the glands by excessive turgidity or by fungus, insect, or mechanical wounds. HOOD (7), in Florida in 1916, and WILSON and YOUNG (13), in California in 1917, appear to have been the first and only ones in the United States to have made quantitative studies on the volatile oil in the peel of citrus fruits, except possibly on a commercial basis. Comparatively recently, deterluinations of the volatile oil in citrus peel have been made in other countries bv DE VILLIERS (5), TANCHICO and WEST (11), BRAVERMAN and MON'SELISE (4), SAMISCH (9), and FELIUI (6). The sizes of the samples and the methods used in the last three studies appear to warrant conclusions only as to general trends.Materials and methods
First Insights into the Draft Genome Sequence of the Endophyte Paenibacillus amylolyticus Strain GM1FR, Isolated from Festuca rubra L.
ABSTRACT Paenibacillus amylolyticus strain GM1FR is an endophyte isolated from aerial plant tissues of Festuca rubra L. Here, we report the draft genome sequence (7.3 Mb) of GM1FR containing 6,241 protein-coding genes, some of which are potentially involved in plant growth promotion and biocontrol.