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Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay,...
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Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay, Ripening and Senescence—2nd Edition

A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2026 | Viewed by 3556

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Analía Concellón

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Guest Editor
CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CIDCA (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos), Calles 47 y 116, La Plata CP 1900, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Interests: traditional and emerging post-harvest technology; post-harvest physiology of fruit and vegetables; chilling injury (eggplant, pepper, tomato); bioactive compounds; food chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. María José Zaro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CIDCA (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos), Calles 47 y 116, La Plata CP 1900, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Interests: postharvest physiology of fruit and vegetables; postharvest technology; shelf-life; antioxidant compounds; bio-stimulants; functional and nutritional quality; essential oils
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fruits and vegetables represent a significant portion of the world’s food waste. The overall quality of fruit and vegetable products results from various biochemical processes that occur beforehand. Therefore, it is essential for scientists to study them. Understanding the profile, roles, biochemistry, and/or regulation of metabolites is crucial in modulating, improving, and extending their post-harvest shelf-life while also increasing knowledge about specific physiological and biochemical metabolism.

This Special Issue of Metabolites, entitled “Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay, Ripening and Senescence—2nd Edition”, follows the previous edition (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metabolites/special_issues/MJ3KW940YU), aiming to collect research and review articles focused on recent advancements in the main metabolic changes that occur during both the pre- and post-harvest stages of fruit and vegetables. We are interested in the inclusion of applications involving pre- or post-harvest strategies, such as bio-stimulants or abiotic stresses (not exclusively), with the ultimate aim of prolonging post-harvest life, reducing the incidence of pathogens or deterioration reactions, and enhancing or preserving valuable metabolites contributing to nutritional and sensorial quality. This Special Issue will also cover advances in understanding the mechanisms of chilling injury and technologies used to mitigate or delay its occurrence. Contributions related to recent biochemical discoveries, changes, and/or the regulation of metabolites and enzymes associated with microorganism incidence and product ripening/senescence are welcome. Finally, methodologies discussions of metabolite detection or changes in metabolic pathways are also welcome.

Dr. Analía Concellón
Dr. María José Zaro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metabolites is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pre- and post-harvest technology
  • bio-stimulants and abiotic stress
  • nutritional quality
  • metabolic pathway
  • bioactive compounds
  • chilling injury

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 4863 KB  
Article
The Phenylpropanoid Pathway Is a Central Roundabout in Peach Fruit Pre- and Postharvest Physiology
by Lorena Melet, Ricardo Nilo-Poyanco, Maria Paz Covarrubias, Reinaldo Campos-Vargas, María Luisa Valenzuela and Andrea Miyasaka Almeida
Metabolites 2026, 16(3), 191; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo16030191 - 12 Mar 2026
Viewed by 472
Abstract
Background: Peach fruit quality can be compromised by cold storage, a postharvest practice required for long-distance export that can trigger chilling injury and metabolic disturbances affecting sugars, organic acids, and other metabolites. Preharvest practices such as thinning modify source–sink relationships and fruit development, [...] Read more.
Background: Peach fruit quality can be compromised by cold storage, a postharvest practice required for long-distance export that can trigger chilling injury and metabolic disturbances affecting sugars, organic acids, and other metabolites. Preharvest practices such as thinning modify source–sink relationships and fruit development, potentially influencing susceptibility to chilling stress. Objectives: This study aimed to determine whether commercial thinning alters fruit susceptibility to cold storage damage and to identify metabolic processes associated with chilling tolerance in two nectarine varieties with contrasting sensitivity, ‘Magique’ (tolerant) and ‘Red Pearl’ (sensitive). Methods: Fruits from thinned (TH) and unthinned (UTH) trees were subjected to cold storage (0 °C, 21 days) followed by ripening, and evaluated for physiological parameters, sugar and organic acid composition by HPLC, and phenylpropanoid-related metabolites by 1H-NMR. A genome-scale metabolic model was built to model fruit metabolism using COBRApy. Results: Thinning increased fruit size in both varieties. Magique exhibited overall metabolic stability across thinning treatments and cold storage. Red Pearl, in contrast, showed broad metabolic fluctuation in response to external stimuli. Integration of transcriptomic data and metabolic modeling identified quinate-centered reactions as candidate regulatory nodes associated with phenylpropanoid flux during ripening and post-chilling recovery. Conclusions: These findings indicate that modulating quinate metabolism during early ripening may help improve chilling tolerance and highlight the phenylpropanoid pathway as a central metabolic axis modulated by both pre- and postharvest practices, with implications for fruit quality management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay, Ripening and Senescence—2nd Edition)
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17 pages, 5292 KB  
Article
Metabolome Reprogramming During Fruit Ripening and Post-Harvest Storage in Ten Crop Species
by Michael Wittenberg, Yanitsa Ilieva and Tsanko Gechev
Metabolites 2026, 16(2), 133; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo16020133 - 13 Feb 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 788
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Plants alter metabolites of their fruits during the ripening process, leading to improved nutritional properties and taste. In addition, metabolite compositions continue to change on the shelf after harvest. However, the dynamics of these important processes are species-specific and so this study [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Plants alter metabolites of their fruits during the ripening process, leading to improved nutritional properties and taste. In addition, metabolite compositions continue to change on the shelf after harvest. However, the dynamics of these important processes are species-specific and so this study aimed to contrast the ripening dynamics of ten different fruit species simultaneously. Methods: Plant material was collected from the fruits of apple, banana, blueberry, kiwifruit, pear, plum, peach, strawberry, raspberry, and tomato at three different stages: unripe, fully ripe, and overripe fruits. Comparative metabolome analysis by GCMS was performed to identify differentially abundant metabolites across the species of this study and to examine their dynamics across ripening and post-harvest storage. These results were complemented by elemental compositions derived from a literature search. Results: In a first, this study demonstrated that both baseline metabolite abundances and their dynamics across ripening clustered species vary largely according to their phylogeny. Comparisons across ripe fruit identified differences in nutritional properties, highlighting species such as banana to be of especially high nutritional value and blueberry and peach to be prominent sources of antioxidants. Comparing the ripening dynamics of all species identified common patterns, such as the conversion of organic acids to sugars and cell wall dynamics, although species-specific responses were also acknowledged, in particular, kiwi and the Rosaceae berries, which may explain differences in post-harvest shelf-life. Conclusions: The observed inter- and intra-specific variation in nutritionally relevant metabolites and elements serves as a reference for both producers and consumers and emphasizes that consuming a variety of fruits, not only across species but also across cultivars within a species, can maximize the intake of beneficial phytonutrients, sugars, amino acids, and antioxidants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay, Ripening and Senescence—2nd Edition)
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15 pages, 2833 KB  
Article
Untargeted Metabolomics Unravel the Effect of SlPBB2 on Tomato Fruit Quality and Associated Plant Metabolism
by Cuicui Wang, Lihua Jin, Daqi Fu and Weina Tian
Metabolites 2026, 16(1), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo16010068 - 12 Jan 2026
Viewed by 557
Abstract
Background: Proteasomes are protein complexes that mediate proteolysis to degrade unneeded or damaged proteins, and they play an indispensable role in plant growth and development. However, their regulatory effects on tomato fruit quality and the underlying metabolic mechanisms remain largely elusive. This [...] Read more.
Background: Proteasomes are protein complexes that mediate proteolysis to degrade unneeded or damaged proteins, and they play an indispensable role in plant growth and development. However, their regulatory effects on tomato fruit quality and the underlying metabolic mechanisms remain largely elusive. This study aimed to elucidate the metabolic regulatory mechanisms of proteasomes in tomato fruits through untargeted metabolome analysis. Methods: An untargeted metabolomics approach was employed to profile the metabolic changes in tomato fruits. Metabolites were detected and identified under both positive and negative ion modes. Metabolic profiles were compared between wild-type (WT) tomato fruits and SlPBB2 RNA interference (SlPBB2-RNAi) lines. Specifically, the SlPBB2-RNAi line refers to a transgenic tomato line constructed via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, where the expression of the proteasome component gene SlPBB2 was stably downregulated by RNA interference technology to clarify its regulatory role in fruit metabolism. KEGG enrichment analysis was performed to annotate the functions of differential metabolites. Results: A total of 568 and 333 metabolites were identified in positive and negative ion modes, respectively. Comparative analysis revealed 43 differentially abundant metabolites between WT and SlPBB2-RNAi fruits, including D-glucose, pyruvic acid, leucine, and naringenin. KEGG enrichment analysis further identified key metabolites involved in the carbon fixation pathway of photosynthetic organisms, with L-malic acid being a prominent representative. Reduced accumulation of D-glucose and pyruvic acid in SlPBB2-RNAi fruits suggested the inhibition of the citrate cycle, a core pathway in cellular energy metabolism. This metabolic perturbation was associated with decreased chlorophyll content in SlPBB2-RNAi plants, implying impaired photosynthetic carbon fixation and energy metabolism. Conclusions: This study uncovers the metabolic regulatory role of SlPBB2-mediated proteasome function in tomato fruits, providing novel insights into the link between proteasomal activity and fruit metabolic homeostasis from a metabolomic perspective. These findings offer new theoretical foundations for developing strategies to improve tomato nutritional quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay, Ripening and Senescence—2nd Edition)
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14 pages, 1512 KB  
Article
Postharvest NMR Metabolomic Profiling of Pomegranates Stored Under Low-Pressure Conditions: A Pilot Study
by Keeton H. Montgomery, Aya Elhabashy, Brendon M. Anthony, Yong-Ki Kim and Viswanathan V. Krishnan
Metabolites 2025, 15(8), 507; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo15080507 - 30 Jul 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1119
Abstract
Background: There is a high demand for long-term postharvest storage of valuable perishables with high-quality preservation and minimal product loss due to decay and physiological disorders. Postharvest low-pressure storage (LPS) provides a viable option for many fruits. While recent studies have presented the [...] Read more.
Background: There is a high demand for long-term postharvest storage of valuable perishables with high-quality preservation and minimal product loss due to decay and physiological disorders. Postharvest low-pressure storage (LPS) provides a viable option for many fruits. While recent studies have presented the details of technology, this pilot study presents the metabolomics changes due to the hypobaric storage of pomegranates as a model system. Methods: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics studies were performed on pomegranate fruit tissues, comparing fruit stored under LPS conditions versus the traditional storage system, with modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) as the control. The metabolomic changes in the exocarp, mesocarp, and arils were measured using 1H NMR spectroscopy, and the results were analyzed using multivariate statistics. Results: Distinguishable differences were noted between the MAP and LPS conditions in fruit quality attributes and metabolite profiles. Sucrose levels in the aril, mesocarp, and exocarp samples were higher under LPS, while sucrose levels were reduced in MAP. In addition, alanine levels were more abundant in the mesocarp and exocarp samples, and ethanol concentration decreased in the exocarp samples, albeit less significantly. Conclusions: This pilot investigation shows the potential for using NMR as a valuable assessment tool for monitoring the performance of viable long-term storage conditions in horticultural commodities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolic Changes During Pre- and Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Decay, Ripening and Senescence—2nd Edition)
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