Scientia Horticulturae最新文献

{"title":"CrCUL11 regulates hormonal and redox signaling to promote adventitious bud formation in camellia reticulata","authors":"Jing Xie,&nbsp;Cheng Yang,&nbsp;Jianzhao Wang,&nbsp;Xian Yin,&nbsp;Tian Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114310","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114310","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As an essential ornamental plant for horticultural applications, <em>Camellia reticulata</em> has high ornamental and economic value, yet its in vitro regeneration remains technically challenging. Our research found that <em>CrCUL11</em>, a <em>CULLIN</em> family gene related to auxin signaling, is a key regulatory factor for adventitious bud differentiation in <em>C. reticulata.</em> The heterologous transformation of tobacco indicates that <em>CrCUL11</em> regulates the levels of endogenous auxin and cytokinin, activates transcription factors (e.g., WOX, YUCCA, ARR, and CRE), and forms a hormonal balance network. This network can be achieved through exogenous plant growth regulators (0.20 mg/L IBA + 1.00 mg/L 6-BA) or through red-blue light regulation (blue: red light = 2:1). Importantly, <em>CrCUL11</em> promotes the synthesis of ascorbic acid (AsA) and glutathione (GSH), and eliminates ROS to maintain redox homeostasis. This study reveals the dual role of <em>CrCUL11</em> in hormone-antioxidant crosstalk, providing a new approach for improving the <em>C. reticulata</em> regenerative system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114310"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144711132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microbial inoculants enhance walnut yield and soil health","authors":"Qiqi Chen ,&nbsp;Gang Chen ,&nbsp;Fengchao Wang ,&nbsp;Jing Chen ,&nbsp;Yan Li ,&nbsp;Kaiyun Wang ,&nbsp;Hongyan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The walnut industry faces sustainability challenges from declining yield and quality, exacerbated by environmental stressors and soil microbial imbalances. Microbial inoculants can boost crop growth, quality, and stress resistance, but their mechanisms—such as soil modification, pathogen suppression, and microbial community regulation—for enhancing yields require further clarification. In this study, we utilized Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology to investigate the effects of conventional chemical fertilizers and microbial agents (<em>Bacillus amyloliquefaciens</em> SDTB009) on disease suppression, soil parameters, microbial communities, as well as walnut yield and quality. The results showed that the implementation of SDTB009 agent as a rhizosphere soil treatment led to notable enhancements in various soil parameters. These included increased levels of soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available potassium, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, as well as heightened activity of soil urease, alkaline phosphatase, catalase, and sucrase enzymes. Furthermore, the application of SDTB009 promoted the enrichment of <em>Bacillus</em> spp. and <em>Sphingomonas</em> spp., and significantly reduced the abundance of <em>Alternaria</em> spp. and <em>Fusarium</em> spp., concomitantly enhancing walnut yield, quality (the oil content increased by 1.33 %, the total amino acid content increased by 3.58 %, and the total protein content increased by 0.57 %) and fatty acids content. At the same time, it shows that beneficial microorganisms could positively regulate plant growth by improving nutrients and inducing disease resistance signals. This work highlighted the potential of microbial biofertilizers to simultaneously enhance soil health and agroecosystem productivity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114300"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144711131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interactive effects of far-red light and vapor-pressure deficit on photosynthetic performance and water-use efficiency of cucumber seedlings","authors":"Toshio Shibuya,&nbsp;Nanoka Wada,&nbsp;Ryosuke Endo","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114287","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114287","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Exploring the effects of interactions between light quality and other environmental factors on photosynthetic performance is crucial for improving post-transplant performance of transplants grown under artificial lighting. We investigated the effects of far-red (FR) light and vapor-pressure deficit (<em>VPD</em>) on the photosynthetic performance and water-use efficiency of cucumber (<em>Cucumis sativus</em>) seedlings. Seedlings were grown in controlled-environment chambers under four different combinations of FR light and <em>VPD</em>: with or without FR light (FR+ or FR–), under low or high <em>VPD</em> (0.8 or 2.3 kPa). We found a synergistic interaction in which FR– combined with increased <em>VPD</em> enhanced photosynthetic performance. Analysis of the response curves of net photosynthetic rate (<em>P</em>_n) to intercellular CO₂ concentration indicated that this enhancement was mainly due to non-stomatal factors. Leaf mass per unit area, which was positively correlated with <em>P</em>_n, was higher under these conditions, implying increased mesophyll capacity. Intrinsic water-use efficiency (<em>WUE</em>_i) was higher in leaves that had been acclimatized at FR+ and high <em>VPD</em>. Under FR–, particularly at high <em>VPD</em>, the increase in photosynthesis was outweighed by an increase in stomatal conductance (<em>g</em>_s), leading to lower <em>WUE</em>_i. This increased <em>g</em>_s may be attributable to improved leaf hydraulic conductance induced by low-FR light. Our results reveal the complex interactions between light quality and evaporative demand through their effects on plant responses, which suggest possible trade-offs between increasing photosynthetic performance and maintaining water-use efficiency across combinations of FR light and <em>VPD</em>. Such insights are critical for optimizing growth conditions in controlled environments for transplant production to improve post-transplant growth.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114287"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144703584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Non-natural day length does not negatively affect lettuce growth as a result of acclimated carbohydrate rhythms","authors":"Diego Núñez Ocaña,&nbsp;Tessa Haanskorf,&nbsp;Linghui Yang,&nbsp;Elisabetta Sfondrini,&nbsp;Abhishek Touti Reddy,&nbsp;Leo F.M. Marcelis,&nbsp;Ep Heuvelink","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114291","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114291","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The plant endogenous clock determines optimal physiological and growth responses to daily environmental changes. Aligning the day length with the endogenous clock period (different from 24 h) is known as circadian resonance and enhances the growth of <em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em> via precise timing of carbohydrate metabolism and a range of other physiological processes. Furthermore, long photoperiods within a 24 hour day enhance plant growth compared to short photoperiods. This study aimed to elucidate the interaction between day length and photoperiod on growth, and morphology, and how daily rhythms of non-structural carbohydrates explained these effects. We grew two lettuce cultivars in a climate chamber under day lengths of 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28 h combined with dark periods of 2, 4 and 6 h and under continuous light. Growth and morphology were unaffected by the interaction between day length and photoperiod, as well as by day length alone. Extending the photoperiod by reducing the dark period from 6 to 2 h did not affect growth in one cultivar, however, it improved growth in the other cultivar. This positive effect on growth was associated with higher leaf area and projected leaf area. Non-structural carbohydrates showed rhythms in agreement with the day length applied, which implies acclimation to non-natural days likely via endogenous clock regulation. Our findings show that a lack of circadian resonance does not necessarily result in poor growth and remark the benefit of extended photoperiods to achieve similar or enhanced growth compared to shorter photoperiods at equal DLI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114291"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144703585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification of tomatoes with bruise using laser-light backscattering imaging technique","authors":"Muhammad Achirul Nanda ,&nbsp;Muhammad Saukat ,&nbsp;Asep Yusuf ,&nbsp;Laras Putri Wigati ,&nbsp;Fumina Tanaka ,&nbsp;Fumihiko Tanaka","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurately detecting bruise in tomatoes is a significant challenge in postharvest processing due to large-scale production and the demand for high-quality standards. Reduced nutritional value and product appearance due to bruise can affect market value and selling price. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a sensing technology based on laser-light backscattering imaging (LLBI) to identify the bruise of tomatoes. A total of 300 samples were collected and labeled into two main classes namely sound and bruised tomatoes. Each fruit was scanned with various laser wavelengths (450, 532, and 648 nm) at an incident angle of 20° to monitor the structural characteristics. In backscattering image, the gray-level co-occurrence matrix was implemented to extract six texture features including contrast, dissimilarity, homogeneity, energy, angular second moment, and correlation. Additionally, a support vector machine with various kernel functions namely linear, radial basis function (RBF), and polynomial was used to detect bruise. The results showed that based on numerical analysis, the LLBI technique was capable of identifying bruise in tomatoes with an accuracy of 96.111 %. The proposed technique implemented the best combination of laser wavelength and kernel function of 648 nm and RBF, respectively. Therefore, this innovative LLBI technique has the potential to optimize quality monitoring of horticultural products during postharvest handling, reduce fruit rejection rates, and prevent financial losses in the agro-industrial sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114301"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144703586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of cinnamaldehyde-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers in carboxymethyl cellulose-based coating on the shelf life of fresh pistachio","authors":"Sara Norouzzadeh ,&nbsp;Hamid-Reza Akhavan ,&nbsp;Sepideh Khorasani ,&nbsp;Reza Hajimohammadi-Farimani ,&nbsp;Ghodsieh Alizadeh-Bahaabadi","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114299","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114299","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The effects of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as edible coating (EC) containing free cinnamaldehyde (CA), CA-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), and salicylic acid-loaded EC (ECSA) on the shelf life of fresh pistachios at 4 °C for 30 days were evaluated. Compared to control pistachios, coated samples exhibited up to 23 % reduced weight loss, a 50 % increase in total phenolic content (TPC), over 50 % reduction in microbial counts, and up to 44 % lower polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). The TPC increased by approximately 20.9 % in the ECSA-CA treatment during storage. ECSA-CA treatment enhanced peroxidase (POD) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activities by 90 % and 33 %, respectively, versus the control on day 30. The EC-NLC/CA treatment demonstrated the highest catalase (CAT) activity, ∼48.8 % greater than the control samples. SA enhances the defense system of treated fresh pistachios by increasing antioxidant enzyme activities, such as POD (51.6 %) and PAL (32.1 %), and elevating TPC (40.4 %) compared to the control, while simultaneously reducing microbial load and lipid oxidation in the hull. ECSA-CA-treated pistachios exhibited the lowest microbial growth during storage, with only a 0.6 log CFU/g increase in total aerobic mesophilic bacteria count (TBC) and a 0.52 log CFU/g increase in total fungal count (TFC), significantly lower than the control (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). Overall, incorporating CA and SA into CMC coatings effectively extended the shelf life of fresh pistachios by minimizing spoilage, oxidation, and microbial contamination, making them a promising natural preservation strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114299"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144711130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Precision irrigation scheduling improves water productivity and economic indicators in young high-density apple orchards","authors":"Mahdi Selahvarzi,&nbsp;Hossein Ansari,&nbsp;Ali Naghi Ziaei,&nbsp;Seyed Mohammadreza Naghedifar","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114264","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114264","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Water shortages in arid and semi-arid regions have caused traditional horticulture to move towards high-density orchards. While water productivity (WPc) in high-density orchards has been studied in various contexts, a comprehensive analysis of the key factors influencing it in a water-limited region, which also considers economic indicators, has been lacking. This research innovates by combining the effects of sensor-based precision irrigation and Deficit Irrigation (DI) and shading net on WPc, Economic crop Water Productivity (EWPc), and Economic Energy Productivity (EEP) indicators in high-density apple orchards. This experiment was carried out in northeastern Iran during two growing seasons in 2021–2022, in comparison to EvapoTranspiration-based Irrigation Scheduling (ETS) and Soil Moisture-based Irrigation Scheduling (SMS), as well as shading net treatment (with (S1) and without (S0) shading net) along with the irrigation strategies that included Full Irrigation (FI), Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI), and Sustainable Deficit Irrigation (SDI). FI applied 100 % of the crop water requirement at all growth stages, while RDI supplied 60 % of the water requirement between 55 and 105 days after full bloom, maintaining 100 % irrigation at other stages. In contrast, SDI provided 60 % of the water requirement throughout all growth stages. Results showed these techniques and strategies were able to increase WPc by varying amounts, such that the highest WPc was observed with SDI-S1 (11.5 kg/m³) and SDI-SMS (12.7 kg/m³) treatments in 2021 and RDI-SMS (15.9 kg/m³) and RDI-S1 (10.8 kg/m³) treatments in 2022. Similarly, under RDI-S1-SMS (1.3 $/m³ and 2.8 $/m³) treatments, the EWPc values reached in two years, respectively. These findings gained further insights into optimizing WPc and economic indicators for sustainability applications in horticultural development in water-limited regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 114264"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144697027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Saline water irrigation induced differences in sodium ion distribution and tomato yield following drought hardening pre-treatment","authors":"Jia Lu ,&nbsp;Yang Gao ,&nbsp;Longjia Tian ,&nbsp;Jihui Ding ,&nbsp;Guangcheng Shao ,&nbsp;Zhongyi Zeng ,&nbsp;Jing Wang ,&nbsp;Dan Su","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114285","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114285","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Saline water irrigation is applied to address water scarcity due to climate change; however, it causes soil salinisation, which is harmful to soil quality and crop growth. Drought hardening can trigger resistance to additional stress events by activating various defence mechanisms. Herein, we examined the effect of drought hardening pre-treatment on soil sodium ion accumulation, sodium ion distribution in various organs, sodium ion excretion by plants and tomato yield change under saline water irrigation through a 2-year experiment. Different water and salinity treatments were designed, including four water levels (W1, W2, W3 and W4, indicating soil moisture contents of 75 %–85 %, 60 %–70 %, 55 %–65 % and 40 %–50 % of the field capacity, respectively) and three salt levels (S2, S4 and S6, indicating sodium chloride (NaCl) addition of 2, 4 and 6 g <em>L</em>⁻¹, respectively). The control treatment (CK) was treated without drought hardening and irrigated with tap water with no salt. The amount of soil sodium ions increased the most during the developmental stage, and sodium ion content in the whole-pot soil increased during the developmental stage by 420.18 %–1947.99 % in the 2-year experiment, compared with that during the seedling stage. Sodium ions were lowest in the middle-layer roots and highest in lower-layer leaves at the end of maturation stage. Sodium ions were lowest in the middle-layer roots decreased by 3.69 %–41.12 % in 2022, compared with that in upper- and lower-layer roots, and the decreased percentages were 14.06 %–57.89 % in 2023 at the end of maturation stage. Moreover, sodium ions in soil and various tomato organs increased with irrigation salinity, except for the W1S2 treatment in 2022 and the W4S4 treatment in 2023. Compared with sodium ions in soil and sodium ion excretion by plant, the sodium ion content in tomato organs was the lowest, at 1.98 %–12.35 %. The root is an important regulated organ that affects the distribution of sodium ions in both soil and plant organs. Mild drought hardening resulted in the lowest amount of sodium ions in soil under the S2 and S4 treatments and led to the highest sodium ion excretion. Yield increased with decreased irrigation salinity and gained the largest value under the mild drought hardening treatment. Yield under mild drought hardening treatment increased by 19.61 %–151.41 %, compared with other salt treatments. In conclusion, mild drought hardening could alleviate salinisation and improve tomato resistance to salt stress. This paper provides some reference for future research on the mechanism by which drought hardening enhances the salt tolerance in crops, and also offers some new ideas for applying salt water irrigation to solve the problem of water shortage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114285"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144695022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of morphology, nutritional composition, and bioactive compounds in purple garlic bulbs across Northern China","authors":"Xuemei Xiao ,&nbsp;Yiqiong Cui ,&nbsp;Ju Li ,&nbsp;Mingming Sun ,&nbsp;Chaosheng Zhao ,&nbsp;Jie Wang ,&nbsp;Khuram Shehzad Khan ,&nbsp;Jihua Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114292","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114292","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Purple garlic is known for its intense spicy flavor and high pharmaceutical value. However, comprehensive quality assessments of its properties remain limited. This study collected five purple garlic varieties from different Chinese production regions and evaluated their morphological and nutritional characteristics. The results showed that there were significant differences in appearance and nutritional quality among five varieties of purple garlic (PG). Jinxiang PG had the largest fresh weight with 93.23 g, and Minle PG had the best bulb color with the a* value of 6.70. The highest soluble sugar, soluble protein, dry matter and allicin content was observed in Ledu PG. Among 11 mineral elements, S and Se was functional and special for garlic, the highest of that was found in Minle PG, significantly 40.96 % and 85.33 % higher than Ledu PG. Based on LC-MS, 21 amino acids components were detected, and Jinxiang PG exhibited the highest total amino acids contents, with a 51.87 %, 26.41 %, 50.37 %, and 67.22 % increase over Gengzhuang PG, Zhongmou PG, Ledu PG and Minle PG.. PCA analysis revealed that the five varieties were independent of each other spatially in terms of nutritional trait, suggesting that each variety had its own unique quality characteristics. Correlation analysis indicated there was a close relationship between garlic quality and environmental factors. The study findings can guide agricultural practices and market strategies for purple garlic, empowering stakeholders with region-specific quality data to optimize production and consumption choices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114292"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comprehensive metabolite profiling reveals biochemical evolution in coconut water during fruit development","authors":"Mingming Hou ,&nbsp;Jerome Jeyakumar John Martin ,&nbsp;Wenrao Li ,&nbsp;Zhiguo Dong ,&nbsp;Qi Wang ,&nbsp;Yongxiu Chen ,&nbsp;Yuqiao Song ,&nbsp;Chengxu Sun ,&nbsp;Hongxing Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scienta.2025.114290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, Wenchang Sweet Coconut (<em>Cocos nucifera</em> L. 'Wenchang-Sweet') was selected as the experimental material, with Hainan Tall Coconut (<em>Cocos nucifera</em> L. 'Hainan-Tall') water served as the control. Changes in key secondary metabolites—includingphenolic acids, alkaloids, terpenoids, lignans, and coumarins—in coconut water were analyzed across six maturity stages (I to VI, corresponding to 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months of age). Metabolite profiling and differential screening were performed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) combined with a metabolomics approach. The results showed that 168 secondary metabolites were identified in the coconut water of both HTC and WSC, comprising 120 phenolic acids, 26 alkaloids, 6 terpenoids, 12 lignins and 4 coumarins. During the ripening process, the content of secondary metabolite in the coconut water declined in of both HTC and WSC coconuts, however, WSC consistently exhibited significantly higher levels. The number of differentially expressed secondary metabolites between WSC and HTC at each ripening stage was 78, 47, 54, 68, 80, and 62, respectively. Key metabolites such as Choline, Chlorogenic acid and Caffeic acid were identified, along with 30 characteristic secondary metabolites. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that secondary metabolites were primarily enriched in eight metabolic pathways including aminobenzoate degradation (ko00627), phenylpropanoid biosynthesis (ko00940) and biosynthesis of various plant secondary metabolites (ko00999). This study provides a strong theoretical foundation for functional research and product development related to coconut secondary metabolites.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"350 ","pages":"Article 114290"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144686991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}