Regulation of Horticultural Fruits and Vegetables Quality: Internal or External Factors

Horticultural fruits and vegetables are the main source of nutrients for human beings. Dietary fruits and vegetables provide diverse bio-active components including sugars, organic acids, amino acids, fibers, vitamins, as well as antioxidant substances (polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids, etc.). As the quality of horticultural crops is a major concern for consumers, horticulturists and farmers give the top priority to producing products of high quality. External quality determines the appearance of products such as color, size, shape, etc., while internal quality indicates the flavor, aroma, and nutrients. Moreover, the postharvest storage quality including shelf-life and pathogen resistance of fruits and vegetables is also an essential part of quality.

The quality of horticultural fruits and vegetables is both regulated by internal or external factors.
Internal factors mainly involve endogenous plant hormones, for instance, auxin, cytokinin, gibberellin, abscisic acid, and ethylene. External factors include exogenous plant hormones (also called plant growth regulators, which are artificially produced phytohormones), light, temperature, fertilizer, etc. Fruits and vegetables could sense these stimuli as eustress or distress signals, subsequently switch on the response processes, and consequently lead to the formation of crop quality. For example, light is received by plant photoreceptors, transduced from the key proteins COP1 and HY5 to the down-stream transcription factors, and consequently leads to photomorphogenesis such as hypocotyl elongation inhibition and anthocyanin accumulation, which contribute to the quality of fruits and vegetables. Approaches regarding genome sequencing, genetic mapping, molecular biology, omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, phenomics, etc.), and genetic transformation are widely used to reveal the physiological and molecular mechanisms of internal or external factors regulating horticultural fruits and vegetables quality.

The aim of this research topic is to increase the level of understanding about the regulation of horticultural fruits and vegetables quality by internal or external factors. We welcome submissions of original research and review articles on the following subthemes but are not limited to:

• Physiological and biochemical regulation of horticultural fruits or vegetables quality by internal or external factors
• Identification and functional analysis of key genes regulating fruits or vegetables quality in response to internal or external factors
• Molecular mechanism of internal or external factors affecting the quality of fruits or vegetables
• Omics analysis of fruits or vegetables quality regulated by internal or external factors
• Pre-harvest and post-harvest technologies to improve the quality of horticultural fruits or vegetables

Keywords: fruit, vegetable, quality, internal and external factors, regulation

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