The Mediterranean basin is home to many tree crops in Europe such as citrus, olive, persimmon, loquat, pomegranate, carob and various sorts of nuts. These crops are main components of the Mediterranean diet as inscribed since 2013 in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Several of these crops present specific development and ripening traits that challenge established models. Meanwhile, climate change tend to aggravate the already unregular rainfall and temperature patterns in the region as well as in the other Mediterranean Type Ecosystems (MTEs), posing detrimental outcome on crop performance, productivity, and changes in fruit ripening. It is of paramount importance to report and extend the recent advancements in research on the development and ripening mechanisms in these crops in order to establish the guidelines for new cultural practices, breeding programs, and varieties selection that can better adapt to the changing conditions.
The goal of this Research Topic is to highlight recent studies on the anatomical, physiological, metabolomic, and genomic processes occurring throughout the development and ripening of fruits and tree crops grown in the Mediterranean Basin and MTE, from field until postharvest. Research comprising changes in the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, as well as data arising from the multi-omics approach regarding the various stages of fruit growth, development, and ripening are very important to understand and establish the potential specific regulatory traits in these crops. Since many of them are perennial species, they are subjected to adverse environmental conditions throughout their entire life cycle. The effect of cultural practices, varying environmental factors, as well as the impact of the various stresses on the performance of tree crops over consecutive cropping seasons are also expected to be acknowledged in this research topic.
This Research Topic welcomes original research, review, and perspective on the Mediterranean tree crops fruit ripening, with focus on the anatomy, physiology, metabolomic, and genomic response throughout the various stages of growth and development. Multi-omics approaches applied to this topic are very much welcome. The topic also includes the effect of the various environmental factors such as light, temperature, precipitation, etc., and the impact of both biotic and abiotic stresses on fruit yield, development, ripening and quality both on-tree (non-climacteric fruit) as well as in the postharvest (climacteric fruit). Articles may include both studies based on experimentation as well as simulation modeling.
Fruits and tree crops that are adapted to Mediterranean climate will be considered in this article collection. Apart from the Mediterranean Basin, studies conducted in
MTE's are also welcome in this article collection.
Please note that descriptive studies and those defining gene families or descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide mechanistic and/or physiological insights into the biological system or process being studied.
