| Summary: | This book, divided into four parts, aims to gather comprehensive and concise information on the advances in fruit research. Part one focuses on physiology and metabolism. Part two deals with fruit nutritional quality and part three with signalling and hormonal control of fruit ripening. Part four covers genetic and epigenetic control of fruit ripening. This book also aims to fill a long-felt need for a comprehensive treatise contributed to by world experts in each subdiscipline, covering various aspects of fruit development and ripening. Each chapter concisely describes the recent advances in our understanding of individual ripening pathways including those of cell walls, aroma volatiles and cuticle/waxes; micro-nutrients such as carotenoids, vitamins, other antioxidants and bioactive compounds; features of chromoplast development; and primary and secondary metabolism. Developments on the hormonal control of fruit ripening with a special focus on ethylene biosynthesis and responses are described. The potential role(s) of other phytohormones such as abscisic acid, auxin, gibberellins, brassinosteroids and the jasmonate family and their interaction with ethylene responses is featured. Similarly, biogenic amines are shown to impact on fruit ripening. The involvement of key transcription factors and their interactions with the promoters of ripening-related genes provide a deeper insight into the molecular basis of fruit ripening. Chapters on ripening mutants, genomics/metagenomics and epigenetic control of ripening, emphasizing novel strategies, together with the subjects mentioned above and those on fruit biodiversity, the genetics of sensory quality and biotechnology, provide overall a present day meaning to diverse and complex processes that regulate the life of a fruit.
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