Berry Wax-Related Research and Biomimetic Technology

Abstract

Epidermal wax is an important structure of the fruit and is targeted in improving fruit quality upon storage. Previous studies on fruit wax focused on the stages of growth and development. Prof. Haiyan Gao's group from Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences carried out a decade of cutting-edge research on the wax of postharvest berry fruits https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55225772900. Her group systematically revealed the structure and chemical composition, in particular the distinctive triterpenoids and β-diketones in berries (Chu et al. 2017). The structural features of epidermal wax and their effects on softening and senescence (Chu et al. 2018), and thereafter, postharvest quality maintenance of berries were also demonstrated (Ding et al. 2024; Kong et al. 2023; Liu, Shang, et al. 2023). Her group provided unequivocal evidence for the role of wax metabolism in postharvest quality maintenance (Jiang et al. 2022a; Kong et al. 2024) and disease resistance (Jiang et al. 2022b) expanding the cognition of fruit wax metabolism regulation network (Wu et al. 2023). A breakthrough in wax biomimetic preservation technology has been developed by leveraging the natural wax composition and structural properties of blueberry fruits, which significantly enhances postharvest preservation and prolongs shelf life (Liu, Liu, et al. 2023). In addition, the group has expanded the postharvest wax research to blue honeysuckle (Peng et al. 2025), grape (Ma et al. 2025), and other specialty berries. These findings provide a framework for postharvest quality biology of berries and reduce the gap between basic research and industrial applications of berries.

The author declares no conflict of interest.