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- Author or Editor: Li-Xin Zhang x
- HortScience x
Four papaya (Carica papaya L.) lines that may have commercial value were surveyed for variability in ripening characteristics. Skin and flesh yellowing, fruit softening, respiration rate, and ethylene production were compared. Skin yellowing and flesh softening followed a similar sigmoid pattern for all lines. However, the temporal relationship between skin yellowing and flesh softening differed among the lines. Fruit from lines RL-1-3 and RL-1-12 did not begin to soften until the skin was 80% yellow, compared to 40% yellow for the commercial cultivars Kapoho and Sunrise. Fruit from RL-1-3 and RL-1-12 took 12 and 16 days, respectively, to reach 100% yellow from color break, which was two to three times as long as that of `Kapoho' and `Sunrise' at 22C. All lines showed typical climacteric respiration and ethylene patterns. The time between the start of skin yellowing and the rise in respiration varied from ≈2 days in `Kapoho' and `Sunrise' to ≈4 days in line RL-1-3 and 8 days in line RL-1-12. The respiratory peak was greatly reduced in RL-1-12. The patterns of softening in lines RL-1-3 and RL-1-12 differed from `Kapoho' and `Sunrise': RL-1-3 softened slowly, but reached similar firmness values to other lines 4 days after 100% yellow skin color; RL-1-12 had a much slower rate of softening and the fruit were still firm 4 days after the fruit reached 100% yellow. The ripening patterns of line RL-1-3 and RL-1-12 could be useful in postharvest handling and provide material for studying the genetic control of fruit softening.