Explore the vast range of titles available.

Honey is one of the most valuable food products, which, in addition to its nutritional value, also has therapeutic properties. In our study, the physicochemical (Brix, viscosity, free acid content, pH, moisture, diastase activity, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), proline content, sugars content, and reducing sugars content) and microbial (mold and yeast content) characteristics and 15 element contents (As, Cd, K, Al, Pb, Hg, Ba, Ni, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Se) of the samples were evaluated. Among the essential elements, the maximum mean was related to K (630 ± 50.8 mg/kg), and the minimum mean was related to Se that was lower than the limit of detection. Also, among all toxic elements, the maximum mean was related to Ni (234 ± 54.7 µg/kg), and the minimum mean was related to Hg that was lower than the limit of detection. Furthermore, the mean of free acidity, pH, °Brix, moisture, diastase content, HMF, and proline content was 35.4 ± 1.27 meq/kg, 4.61 ± 0.21, 82.2 ± 3.08, 16.3 ± 0.33%, 9.10 ± 1.14 DN, 21.1 ± 2.65 mg/kg, and 482 ± 18.1 mg/kg, respectively. Also, the mean percentage of fructose, glucose, and sucrose was 32.4 ± 1.07% (27.5–40.0%), 27.2 ± 0.85% (23.5–31.7%), and 2.28 ± 0.70% (0.72–4.11%), respectively. Finally, the mean of mold and yeast in all samples was 14.2 ± 0.37 CFU/g. Also, the principal component analysis and heat map allowed us to determine a more accurate distinction between the physicochemical characteristics of bee honey. The results of our findings showed that in most cases, the results obtained were within the standard range, which indicates the good quality of Iranian honeys.

Although it is known that fruit products are rich sources of natural bioactive compounds, information on the nutritional value of their waste parts is scarce. The objective was to characterize the edible (juice and pulp) and waste (peel and seeds) parts of Cantaloupe melon ( Cucumis melon L. var. reticulatus ) in terms of some physicochemical characteristics, bioactive compounds and total antioxidant activity. Juice, pulp, peel and seeds represent 42, 23, 25 and 7% of total weight, respectively. Juice and pulp presented identical profiles in terms of physicochemical characteristics, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity. They contributed to the majority of the overall content of carotenoids (80%) and vitamin C (84%) in Cantaloupe . Peel and seeds had the highest concentrations of potassium, being seeds the richest portion (7.08 ± 0.16 mg/g). Seeds had also the significantly highest total phenolics concentration (229.13 ± 20.92 µg/g), antioxidant activity (653.67 ± 169.20 µg/g), and soluble solids content (11.79 ± 0.90 °Brix). Peel stood out by the presence of chlorophylls. Since waste parts of Cantaloupe melon represent around 32% of total weight, their valorization is a challenge and strategies to improve ways of re-using them should be developed.

Background Fruit quality traits such as fruit weight, firmness, total soluble solids content, and color strongly influence consumer acceptance, market value, postharvest shelf life, and processing efficiency in tomato. Therefore, these traits are central to breeding programs but remain challenging to dissect due to their polygenic and pleiotropic nature. Results We evaluated 167 accessions from the Varitome collection, encompassing Solanum pimpinellifolium , Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme , and Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum . The Varitome collection represents a rich source of genetic and phenotypic diversity, making it a powerful resource for mapping complex traits. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were conducted using the FarmCPU and Blink models, utilizing a dataset of 3,879,252 SNPs, 831,152 INDELs, and 11,447 structural variants (SVs). Six fruit-quality traits were phenotyped: fruit weight, firmness, total soluble solids, lightness ( L* ), chroma ( C* ), and hue ( h° ). Our multi-variant GWAS uncovered both known and novel determinants of fruit quality. Known loci such as PSY1 and fw11.3/CSR were validated, while robust new signals were detected on chromosomes 1, 4, 6, 8, and 12 for °Brix and on chromosome 7 for fruit weight. Several pleiotropic hotspots were identified, particularly on chromosomes 1, 5, 6, and 8 for fruit color, supported by convergent SNP, INDEL, and SV associations. Candidate genes included biosynthetic enzymes ( PSY homologs , LIN5 ), sugar transporters (SWEETs, SUTs, and sugar facilitator proteins), transcriptional regulators (MADS-box, bHLH, TCP, NAC, and MYB families), and genes linked to plastid remodeling, light signaling, and oxidative turnover. Integration of INDELs and SVs across models improved mapping resolution and robustness, enabling the detection of loci that would remain hidden in SNP-only scans. Conclusions This study demonstrates the multilayered genetic networks governing tomato fruit quality and expands the catalog of loci contributing to polygenic traits. By using SNPs, INDELs, and SVs with FarmCPU and Blink models, we provide validated and novel targets for marker-assisted breeding, genomic selection, and functional validation. These findings establish a framework for accelerating the development of tomato cultivars with enhanced fruit weight, sweetness, firmness, and color, thereby supporting both market competitiveness and nutritional quality.

Sugars and organic acids not only have a significant impact on taste balance and sensory acceptance by consumers but also play a crucial role in the chemical equilibrium of grape juices and wines. Therefore, this study aimed to quantify the content and composition of sugars and organic acids in 17 grape varieties over two consecutive years using high-performance liquid chromatography. The variability in all the parameters studied was strongly influenced by both the grape cultivars and specific years ( p ≤ 0.05). In grape berries, the primary sugars identified were fructose and glucose, which ranged from 6.50 to 11.10 g/L and from 5.83 to 12.12 g/L, respectively, over the two years. However, sucrose was not detected in any of the grape varieties examined. For the two respective years, the highest titratable acidity (TA) was found in Tekirdağ Çekirdeksizi (TeCe) (0.89 and 0.90 g/L), while the lowest was detected in Victoria (Vi) (0.48 and 0.51 g/L). Total soluble solids (TSS) peaked in Horoz Karası (HoKA) (21.90 °Brix), whereas it reached its lowest point in Big Perlon (BiPe) (14.1 °Brix). The tartaric acid content in the grape berries, ranging from 1.48 to 10.33 g/L for the two years, exhibited similar characteristics to malic acid, which ranged from 1.09 to 9.62 g/L and from 1.03 to 9.68 g/L for the two respective years. The succinic, malic, tartaric, citric, and oxalic acid contents were notably higher in the Kyoho (Ky) variety than in the other varieties. When examining the dendrogram of the contents of organic acid and sugar for similarities, it was evident that 16 out of the 17 grape varieties had a high degree of similarity, except for Alphonse Lavallée (AlLa) and HoKa. The similarity levels among the varieties ranged from 99.49% to 72.36%. The highest similarity (99.49%) was observed between the AlLa and Barış (Ba) varieties. The lowest similarity was observed among the AlLa, HoKa, and Ky varieties. In summary, this study underscores that certain table grape varieties grown in Ankara exhibit significant variations in valuable organic acids and sugars, which are associated with potential health benefits when considering human consumption.

Citriculture is a primary agricultural product in Morocco, where water scarcity is a significant challenge exacerbated by climate change. This four-year study investigated the impact of deficit (50% of crop evapotranspiration, ET c ) and excessive (150% ET c , and 200% ET c ) irrigation on Esbal clementine quality in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco. Four irrigation treatments (50%, 100%, 150%, and 200% ET c ) were applied to evaluate their influence on fruit size, acidity, and Brix degree, which measures the dissolved sugar content in a liquid solution. Results indicate that excessive irrigation (200% ET c ) increased fruit size by 108% but decreased the Brix degree by 46%. Conversely, deficit irrigation (50% ET c ) led to a smaller fruit size, yet maintained higher Brix values. Fruit acidity remained relatively stable across treatments, with values ranging from 2.53% in 2019 to 1.54% in 2022 under deficit irrigation (50% ET c ) and showing no significant differences between deficit and excessive irrigation strategies. These findings contribute to understanding the balance between water use and fruit quality, informing sustainable irrigation strategies for citrus production in water-scarce regions.

Wine grape ( Vitis vinifera L.) is the most widely cultivated fruit crop in the world. However, the climactic characteristics in some growing regions are suboptimal for grape production, including short season length and excess precipitation. Grape growers can utilize an array of methods to mitigate these issues, including “early leaf removal,” a management practice involving the removal of leaves from selected basal nodes along shoots around bloom. This meta-analysis reviews the extensive literature on this practice, with specific regards to application at “pre-bloom” (PB). One hundred seventy-five publications on the topic of “early leaf removal” were identified using key terms and subsequently narrowed via eight data curation steps. The comparison between treated (PB) and control plants in these studies revealed two important results. First, PB lowered bunch rot disease (−61%), partially through reducing the compactness of clusters. Second, PB promoted a significant increase in fruit total soluble solids (°Brix, +5.2%), which was related to the increase in the leaf-to-fruit ratio. Furthermore, cultivar and rootstock were found to have a large influence on the success of PB, while the contribution of climate was smaller. In conclusion, PB significantly lowers yield and bunch rot disease and increases °Brix, both of which improve grape and wine quality.

The tomato as a raw material for processing is globally important and is pivotal in dietary and agronomic research due to its nutritional, economic, and health significance. This study explored the potential of machine learning (ML) for predicting tomato quality, utilizing data from 48 cultivars and 28 locations in Hungary over 5 seasons. It focused on °Brix, lycopene content, and colour (a/b ratio) using extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and artificial neural network (ANN) models. The results revealed that XGBoost consistently outperformed ANN, achieving high accuracy in predicting °Brix (R² = 0.98, RMSE = 0.07) and lycopene content (R² = 0.87, RMSE = 0.61), and excelling in colour prediction (a/b ratio) with a R² of 0.93 and RMSE of 0.03. ANN lagged behind particularly in colour prediction, showing a negative R² value of −0.35. Shapley additive explanation’s (SHAP) summary plot analysis indicated that both models are effective in predicting °Brix and lycopene content in tomatoes, highlighting different aspects of the data. SHAP analysis highlighted the models’ efficiency (especially in °Brix and lycopene predictions) and underscored the significant influence of cultivar choice and environmental factors like climate and soil. These findings emphasize the importance of selecting and fine-tuning the appropriate ML model for enhancing precision agriculture, underlining XGBoost’s superiority in handling complex agronomic data for quality assessment.

The study, conducted in 2023 on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Trebbiano Toscano, and Sangiovese, investigated sugar concentration variability within and between clusters during ripening. The objectives were: (i) to assess intra-cluster sugar variability among individual berries, including the effect of berry exposure, and (ii) to compare the technological ripening of basal and upper clusters on the same shoot to support thinning decisions.Within each variety, marked differences were observed between the richest and poorest berries, ranging from 12 °Brix in Sangiovese to 16 °Brix in Trebbiano Toscano. No significant differences emerged between the external and internal portions of clusters. Similarly, no significant inter-cluster differences were found between basal and upper clusters in terms of sugar content, organic acids, or pH.As ripening progressed, sugar accumulation tended toward greater homogeneity, while very high sugar levels (>25 °Brix) were mainly associated with berry dehydration. Trebbiano Toscano and Sangiovese showed heavier basal clusters compared to upper ones, suggesting that thinning should preferentially remove upper clusters to avoid yield and sugar losses. Conversely, to limit sugar accumulation and potential alcohol content, removal of basal clusters is recommended.

The non-destructive detection of soluble solids content (SSC) in fruit by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has a good application prospect. At present, the application of portable devices is more common. The construction of an accurate and stable prediction model is the key for the successful application of the device. In this study, the visible and near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectra of Korla fragrant pears were collected by a commercial portable measurement device. Different pretreatment methods were used to preprocess the raw spectra, and the partial least squares (PLS) model was constructed to predict the SSC of pears for the determination of the appropriate pretreatment method. Subsequently, PLS and least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) models were constructed based on the preprocessed full spectra. A new combination (BOSS-SPA) of bootstrapping soft shrinkage (BOSS) and successive projections algorithm (SPA) was used for variable selection. For comparison, single BOSS and SPA were also used for variable selection. Finally, three types of models, namely, PLS, LS-SVM, and multiple linear regression (MLR), were constructed based on different input variables. Comparing the prediction performance of all models, it showed that the BOSS-SPA-PLS model based on 17 variables obtained the best SSC assessment ability with r p of 0.94 and RMSEP of 0.27 °Brix. The overall result indicated that portable measurement with Vis/NIR spectroscopy can be used for the detection of SSC in Korla fragrant pears.

The Anaphase-Promoting Complex/Cyclosome (APC/C) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that plays a crucial role in ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of key cell cycle regulators, which is completed by the 26S proteasome. Previously, SAMBA, a plant-specific regulator of the APC/C, was identified in Arabidopsis as a critical factor controlling organ size through the regulation of cell proliferation. Here, by assessing its role in the crop tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), we confirm that SAMBA is a conserved APC/C regulator in plants and shows additional roles, including the modulation of fruit shape and changes in sugar metabolism. Two slsamba genome-edited lines were produced and characterized, and showed delayed growth, reduced plant size, and altered fruit morphology, which were linked to changes in cell division and expansion. Notably, untargeted metabolomics revealed altered flavonoid profiles, along with elevated Brix values in the fruits, indicating a sweeter taste. Accordingly, transcriptomics uncovered a change in temporal gene expression gradients during early fruit development, correlating with the alterations in sugar metabolism and revealing changes in cell wall biosynthesis genes. This study provides the first evidence of SAMBA's role in regulating fruit development, metabolic content, and ultimately, quality. These important findings offer potential applications for improving the nutritional quality and overall performance of tomatoes.