About this Research Topic

Background

Horticultural crop products are essential to our lives, including fruits, vegetables, flowers and tea. Fruits and vegetables in the diet provide essential nutrients to the human, such as sugars, organic acids, amino acids, vitamins, fibers, polyphenols and flavonoids, as well as other bioactive components. The regulation of the ripening process has always been a hot research topic. First, the development of early maturing varieties enables the products to enter the market early in the production season, bringing higher economic benefits to growers. On the other hand, the ripening process, both pre- and postharvest, determines the quality formation and postharvest characteristics of horticultural products, including the accumulation of flavor substances and nutrients, the formation and transformation of pigments, and the change of texture.

Endogenous and exogenous factors, such as phytohormones, temperature and light, can regulate the physiological processes of ripening in horticultural crops and greatly affect the product quality. The application of some pre-harvest techniques has also been shown to play a role in the ripening process of some fruits and vegetables. Since horticultural products usually undergo senescence and pathogen infection within a short period after harvest, which affects their commerciality and shelf life, appropriate postharvest techniques can maintain product quality and extend shelf life. There is an urgent need to study the mechanisms of ripening regulation and quality formation of horticultural products and to explore more effective pre-harvest and post-harvest techniques to provide high-quality products with a long shelf-life.

In this Research Topic, we welcome studies that provide new insights, theories, and methods on the ripening process, quality formation and maintenance, and pre-and post-harvest techniques for all types of horticultural products, including fruits and vegetables, as well as tea and ornamental plants. We accept all types of articles, including original research studies, mini-reviews or review articles, perspectives, and methods. This collection particularly focuses on the following subtopics but is not limited to:
• Physiological regulation of the ripening process of horticultural crop products.
• Quality formation in horticultural crop products (e.g., flavor, nutrients, pigment accumulation, texture, etc.).
• Effects of pre-harvest techniques on ripening or quality characteristics.
• Quality maintenance under biotic or abiotic stress by postharvest techniques.
• Development of combined pre-and post-harvest treatment in the regulation of quality formation and maintenance.

Please note that experimental data should be used to analyze the mechanisms of the ripening regulation and quality formation of horticultural products, as well as the effects of pre-and post-harvest treatments on quality maintenance. Review papers should summarize the latest research progress in this field in recent years and put forward the limitations of current research and the direction of future development. Descriptive studies (e.g., simple omics data, treatment responses, etc.) with no biological implications do not fall within the scope of this Research Topic.

Keywords: horticultural products, fruits, vegetables, ripening, quality, pre-harvest and post-harvest techniques

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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