Texture profiling for strawberry fruit development and ripening

During the ongoing of strawberry ripening one of the most relevant changes is fruit softening which occurs very rapidly, causing the major loss during the short-term post-harvest storage, strongly affecting the commercial chain and the fruit economic value. Textural attributes vary significantly within strawberry cultivars and these are largely dependent by the genetic constitution as well as environmental and horticultural management. Fruit softening is usually associated with an extensive modification of pectin and hemicellulosic cell wall fractions which in turn is determined to a great extent by the action of cell wall-modifying enzymes, with particular regards to pectin methylesterase, polygalacturonase, endoglucanase, α-arabinofuranosidase, β-galactosidase, and β-xylosidase (Figueroa et al., 2010). To support future breeding programs aimed to improve strawberry fruit texture we have applied a texture analyzer TAXT plus in order to improve the phenotyping resolution, profiling the mechanical response of the samples during the compression phase. This advanced phenotyping technology was employed in this context in order to monitor the texture evolution during strawberry fruit development, ripening and post-harvest in three short day cultivars: Elsanta, Darselect and Candonga. In addition, this equipment was also exploit to dissects the fruit texture behaviour of 28 varieties, both junebearing and everbearing.