Abstract

Japanese plum (Prunus salicina L.) is one of the most important stone fruit crops worldwide with a great commercial interest as a fresh product. Fruit/plum commercialization around the world is largely determined by the shelf-life period. In this context, the main aim of this work is to study the postharvest behaviour of two plum varieties ('Angeleno' (ANG) and 'September King' (SK)) with contrasting ripening pattern, by RNAseq after ripening acceleration using the ethylene biosynthesis regulator Ethrel((R)). ANG is characterized by a long shelf-life period having a suppressed climacteric stage unlike to SK. Regarding Ethrel((R)) treatments, SK showed a higher softening and respiratory rate after Ethrel applications, while ANG did not show differences between Ethrel((R)) treatments. SK started the ethylene emission on the fourth day for the treatment of 1,000 ppm (T2) and on eleventh day for the 300 ppm (T1) treatment. However, ANG didn't initiate a climacteric stage in any case. Regarding RNAseq results, differential gene expression showed important differences between varieties and treatments. It can be highlighted that Prupe.3G055000 is one of the few overexpressed genes in ANG and SK, respectively, which could indicate that there is a certain relationship between inositol phosphate metabolism and the long shelf-life of cultivar ANG.