Quality changes of two sweet cherry cultivars with different susceptibility to cracking during the storage

This study aimed to investigate the difference in postharvest quality and storage tolerance of two sweet cherry cultivars with different susceptibility to cracking (‘Rainier’: less-susceptible, ‘Wanhongzhu’: more-susceptible). Cracking assays confirmed that ‘Wanhongzhu’ was more susceptible to cracking than ‘Rainier’, with the T₅₀ (the half time of fruit cracking in a given solution) of 5.53 and 22.27 h, respectively. During the storage, respiration rate, soluble solids content, titratable acid content, soluble protein content, ascorbic acid content, and firmness of ‘Wanhongzhu’ were higher than those of ‘Rainier’, but the color change and ethylene production were lower than those of ‘Rainier’. For the expression levels of cell wall metabolism-related genes, the expressions of Paβ-Gal, PaEXA4, PaaqpSIP2.1, and PaaqpPIP2.4 in ‘Wanhongzhu’ were higher than those of ‘Rainier’ during the storage, however, the expressions of PaPME, PaPEL.7, PaXTH, PaPAE.1, PaPOD and PaExp1 were lower than those of ‘Rainier’. Correlation analysis results suggest the expressions of cell wall metabolism-related genes in ‘Wanhongzhu’ had less effect on fruit quality than that in ‘Rainier’. Overall, compared with ‘Rainier’, ‘Wanhongzhu’ had better fruit quality during the low-temperature storage, but it was more likely to produce fruits cracking and rot, which shortens its shelf-life. Therefore, ‘Wanhongzhu’ is more suitable for short-term storage.