Incidence and type of cracking in sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) are affected by genotype and season

Abstract

Rain induced fruit cracking in sweet cherries takes 3 distinct forms: stem end cuticular fractures, calyx end cuticular fractures, and large cracks usually deep into the pulp on the cheek of the fruit. A 4-year study of sweet cherry varieties from a commercial orchard in Tasmania, Australia, was conducted to investigate the incidence of crack type and its relative likelihood, as influenced by both genotype and season. Although all 3 crack types developed in the 3-week period before commercial harvest, the extent of cracking was strongly controlled by season. While initial development of cracks coincided with rainfall, no relationship between amount of rain and incidence of cracking was found for crack type. A significant relationship was found between the tangential stress experienced by fruit skin from fruit at harvest maturity and the incidence of cracking recorded in the orchard. No other fruit property (pulp osmotic potential, fruit diameter, weight) explained the differences in incidence of cracking in the field between seasons or varieties. The results suggest that management of cracking needs to consider both varietal and seasonal factors. The development of turgor in maturing fruit also needs further investigation.

QTL mapping for brown rot (Monilinia fructigena) resistance in an intraspecific peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) F1 progeny

“…SK assays were designed in order to represent infection of BR on fruit skin occurring in uniform conditions of humidity, temperature, fruit ripening stage, and inoculum quantity and strain. The observed variation across years of phenotyping can be due to environmental factors influencing fruit barrier efficiency (Gibert et al 2005;Gibert et al 2009;Measham et al 2009). Since C-if infections are the result of the presence of natural inoculum on the studied fruits, in this treatment, environmental variability is also influencing fungal pathogenicity (Tian and Bertolini 1999), and thus, low seasonal correlations should be expected.…”

“…However, BR phenotyping is often hindered by environmental and seasonal conditions. For instance, low temperatures (Phillips 1984;Tian and Bertolini 1999), humidity duration (Wilcox 1989;Tamm et al 1995;Measham et al 2009), soil nutrient availability (Daane et al 1995;May-De-Mio et al 2008), and orchard hygienic conditions (Hong et al 1997) are factors that significantly influence BR development. Despite these difficulties, cultivardependent BR resistance in peach and apricot has been previously evaluated with diverse approaches (Pascal et al 1994;Bassi et al 1998;Gradziel et al 1998;Walter et al 2004;Wagner Júnior et al 2008), indicating a quantitative inheritance for this trait and the possibility for its genetic improvement in Prunus.…”

“…Skin and cuticle micro-cracking susceptibility is a genetic factor directly associated with BR infection, as it facilitates fungal invasion of the fruit (Borve et al 2000;Measham et al 2009). In a previous study (Pascal et al 1994), skin-and flesh-associated resistance were not correlated in diverse stone fruit species.…”

Cracking in sweet cherries: A comprehensive review from a physiological, molecular, and genomic perspective

“…The basic mechanism causing this disorder, although not fully understood, seems to be the rapid increase in water absorption by the fruit. This increment on the water content of the fruit may be the result of the direct water absorption through the fruit skin cuticle or its absorption through the vascular system (Kertesz and Nebel, 1935;Christensen, 1973;Sekse, 1995;Measham et al, 2009). Also, three types of cracking have been described in the literature: stem, apical, and side cracks (Christensen, 1972).…”

“…Also, three types of cracking have been described in the literature: stem, apical, and side cracks (Christensen, 1972). Research from Australia suggests that the type of cracking (i.e., stem, apical, and side) may not be an expression of the severity of a single process, but may rather be the manifestation of the different water uptake pathways during the onset of the problem (Measham et al, 2009;.…”