Qiannan Diao¹ , Yanyan Cao¹ , Dongwei Yao¹ , Yongping Xu² , Wenxian Zhang³ , Hongwei Fan³ , Yongping Zhang¹

1 Horticultural Research Institute and Shanghai Key Lab of Protected Horticultural Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 201403, China
2 Shanghai Huayun Seed Co., Ltd, Shanghai, 201616, China
3 Shanghai Agriculture Technology Extension and Service Center, Shanghai, 201103, China
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 22   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2022.13.0022
Received: 06 Jul., 2022    Accepted: 26 Jul., 2022    Published: 10 Aug., 2022

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Diao Q.N., Cao Y.Y., Yao D.W., Xu Y.P., Zhang W.X., Fan H.W., and Zhang Y.P., 2022, Effects of temperature and humidity on the quality and textural properties of melon fruits during development and ripening, Molecular Plant Breeding, 13(22): 1-13 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2022.13.0022)

The quality of melon fruit depends on the environmental growth conditions. We evaluated the effects of temperature and humidity in the greenhouse on the quality and textural properties of melon fruit during development and ripening. The greenhouse humidity and air and soil temperatures were monitored over two growth seasons of three melon varieties. The average air and soil temperatures were higher in spring than in autumn, whereas average air humidity was lower in spring. The contents of free amino acid, soluble protein, and soluble sugar in melon fruit were significantly higher in spring than in autumn. The contents of sucrose phosphate synthase and sucrose synthase were also significantly higher in spring than in autumn. In both seasons, the contents of water-soluble pectin and ionic soluble pectin increased during fruit maturation, whereas the content of covalent soluble pectin decreased. The cellulose and hemicellulose contents of the three melon cultivars decreased to different degrees during ripening. The contents of ploygalacturonase, pectinesterase, and β-galactosidase first increased and then decreased over time. The cellulase activity in the three cultivars increased steadily and peaked at maturity, suggesting that cell wall-modifying enzymes play important roles in the transformation of fruit texture.

Melon; Fruit quality; Textural Properties