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Cuticle composition and structure may be relevant factors affecting the storage potential of fruits, but very few studies have analyzed fruit cuticle composition from a postharvest perspective. In this work, the chemical composition of waxes and cutin (major cuticular components) was analyzed in cuticle samples isolated from "Celeste" and "Somerset" cherries (Prunus avium L.) after cold storage at 0 °C. Total cuticle amounts per surface unit (μg cm(-2)) increased along with cold storage. The triterpene ursolic acid, the alkane nonacosane, linoleic acid, and β-sitosterol were the most abundant components of cuticular waxes, whereas cutin composition was dominated by C18-type monomers. In spite of being comprised of similar chemical families, cultivar-related differences were found regarding the abundance and the evolution of some compound families during cold storage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on changes in cuticle composition of sweet cherry during postharvest storage.

Antioxidant capacity, quality, and anthocyanin and nutrient contents of 106 peach cultivars from different breeding programs were evaluated at the Estació Experimental de Lleida, IRTA (Catalonia, Spain), during two growing seasons (2010 and 2011). High variability was found among cultivars within each quality trait, where different cultivars were scored as the best and the worst. For example, a 5-fold range (2.17-12.07 g of malic acid L⁻¹), 6-fold range (144.20-711.73 μg of Trolox g⁻¹ of FW), and 11-fold range (0.70-11.43 mg of cyanidin-3-glucoside kg⁻¹ of FW) were observed in titratable acidity, relative antioxidant capacity, and anthocyanin content, respectively. The breeding program within each fruit type (melting peach, nectarine, and flat peach) and qualitative pomological traits also had significant effects on the quality. Nevertheless, each breeding program had specific characteristics that distinguished it from the others. Even so, within each breeding program, there is high variability among cultivars. Therefore, growers should not base their strategy exclusively on the choice of breeding program. Principal component analysis for each fruit type (melting peach, nectarine, nonmelting peach, and flat peach) allowed a selection of a set of cultivars from different breeding programs with the highest quality performance. For example, cultivars such as 'Azurite', 'IFF 1230', 'Amiga', 'Fire Top', 'African Bonnigold', 'Ferlot', 'Mesembrine', and 'Platifirst' had higher sweetness and flavor compared to the others. Therefore, this study could help breeders to make decisions for the selection of new cultivars able to improve the quality features of fruit intake, technicians to know better quality performance of peach cultivars, and consumers to meet their expectations for fruit with high health benefits and a specific taste.

A multilateral approach that includes both biotic and climatic data was developed to detect the main variables that affect the ecology and population dynamics of woolly apple aphid Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann). Crawlers migrated up and down the trunk mainly from spring to autumn and horizontal migration through the canopy was observed from May to August. Winter temperatures did not kill the canopy colonies, and both canopy and root colonies are the source of reinfestations in Mediterranean areas. Thus, control measures should simultaneously address roots and canopy. European earwigs Forficula auricularia (Linnaeus) were found to reduce the survival of overwintering canopy colonies up to June, and this can allow their later control by the parasitoid Aphelinus mali (Haldeman) from summer to fall. Preliminary models to predict canopy infestations were developed.

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Near infrared hyperspectral imaging (HSI-NIR) is considered a promising technique able to replace timeconsuming, costly and destructive classic methods to predict and classify deoxynivalenol (DON) contaminated wheat kernels or samples by its concentration and level of contamination, respectively. The main objective of the present study was to standardise the HSI-NIR image acquisition method in naturally contaminated whole wheat kernels to obtain a high accuracy method to quantify and classify samples according to DON levels. To confirm the results, wheat samples were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography as the reference method to determine their DON levels. Hyperspectral images for single kernels and whole samples were obtained and spectral data were processed by multivariate analysis software. The initial work revealed that HSI-NIR was able to overcome kernel orientation, position and pixel selection. The subsequent developed Partial Least Squares (PLS) prediction achieved a RMSEP (Root Mean Square Error of Prediction) of 405 µg/kg and 1174 µg/kg for a cross-validated model and an independent set validated model, respectively. Moreover, the classification accuracy obtained by Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) was 62.7% for two categories depending on the UE maximum level (1250 µg/kg). Despite of the results are not accurate enough for DON quantification and sample classification, they can be considered a starting point for further improved protocols for DON management.

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