- #Fs global real weather crack cracked#
- #Fs global real weather crack skin#
- #Fs global real weather crack crack#
Cell wall swelling was further directly related to a decrease in cell adhesion, affecting the structural backbone of the fruit (epidermis and hypodermis) and ultimately causing a crack 18. Upon individual cells bursting, it was shown that turgor was removed, allowing in turn the cell wall swelling and provoking the release of malic acid, which caused a spread of damage 17. Furthermore, by using light microscopy and the immunolabeling of cell walls, macrocrack propagation was related to cell death and to cell wall swelling 16. By using magnetic resonance imaging and optical coherence tomography, new evidence was provided that macrocracking resulted from a very localized water uptake through a microcrack, with its initial point the bursting of an individual outer-mesocarp cell 15. In line with this new ‘Zipper’ hypothesis/model, it was demonstrated that cell wall swelling, which favors fracture of epidermal cell walls, appears to be an early, critical, and essential step in a reaction of events, ultimately leading to cracking 14. As an alternative, a different model was proposed in which cracking would be the result of a local defect, which in turn would provoke a zipper-type propagation in order to form a crack 8.
#Fs global real weather crack skin#
In support of this result, a lack of a perfectly semipermeable skin was reported, the skin being permeable to solvent only, as well as to low-molecular solutes 12 it was also proven that the flesh had a more negative water potential then the skin 13. These conclusions were further supported by a study which proved that a sweet cherry fruit was far from behaving as an ideal osmometer 11. However, the absence of significant turgor on sweet cherry fruits analyzed at maturity, as well as the fact that turgor did not respond to water uptake or transpiration 10, casts serious doubts on this ‘traditional’ hypothesis, also referred to as the ‘critical turgor’ hypothesis. The prevailing hypothesis used to explain rain-induced fruit cracking at a whole-fruit basis considers that water uptake increases fruit volume, surface area, and turgor, up to a point of critical turgor when skin ruptures and the fruit cracks 8. It is a significant issue also in other fruits such as grapes, tomatoes, or plums 9.įruit cracking is a highly complex phenomenon which has been related to a large number of factors, among which we may cite: cultivar, fruit size, cell size, firmness, skin characteristics, water uptake, osmolarity, rootstock, etc.
This phenomenon has been studied over one century and numerous reviews have been subsequently published 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Under unfavorable conditions, cracking can cause the loss of over 80% of the cherry ( Prunus avium L.) harvest 1. Rain-induced fruit cracking has been traditionally considered as one of the most important agronomic problems in sweet cherry cultivation. Further studies are needed to confirm the stability of the reported QTLs over different genetic backgrounds and environments and to narrow down the QTL confidence intervals, allowing the exploration of underlying candidate genes. These promising results open the possibility of developing marker-assisted selection strategies to select cracking-tolerant sweet cherry cultivars.
For these and other QTLs, further analyses suggested the existence of at least two-linked QTLs in each linkage group, some of which showed confidence intervals close to 5 cM. We found the first stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for cherry fruit cracking, explaining percentages of phenotypic variance above 20%, for each of these three types of cracking tolerance, in different linkage groups, confirming the high complexity of this trait. An original approach was adopted to integrate, within simple linear models, covariates potentially related to cracking, such as rainfall accumulation before harvest, fruit weight, and firmness.
#Fs global real weather crack cracked#
Three populations were evaluated over 7–8 years by estimating the proportion of cracked fruits for each genotype at maturity, at three different areas of the sweet cherry fruit: pistillar end, stem end, and fruit side. We hypothesized that a large genetic variation would be revealed, by visual field observations conducted on mapping populations derived from well-contrasted cultivars for cracking tolerance. The objective of this work was to disentangle the genetic determinism of rain-induced fruit cracking.
Basic research has been conducted to disentangle the physiological and mechanistic bases of this complex phenomenon, whereas genetic studies have lagged behind. Rain-induced fruit cracking is a major problem in sweet cherry cultivation.