Introduction. Consumers and processors value tomatoes with high fruit sugarcontent; however, most breeding and cultural practices negatively impact this trait. Wildtomato species can accumulate two- to three-fold more fruit sugar than cultivars and areproving to be valuable both as a source of high-sugar loci to broaden thegenetic base of currently produced cultivars, and as research material to understand thistrait. Synthesis. While cutting-edge genomic approaches have taught us muchabout fruit phenotypes, it is still important to assess fruit enzyme activities andmetabolic fluxes in lines with contrasting fruit sugar accumulation. These metabolicfunctions are closest to the ripe fruit sugar trait. In this review, we focus ourattention on the biochemical pathways, especially starch biosynthesis, that may influencetomato fruit sugars. We try where possible to put this information into a physiologicalcontext because together they influence yield. We compare and contrast sugar metabolism incultivars and wild tomato species and identify factors that may influence differences intheir fruit size. Conclusion. Although difficult, we show that it is possibleto develop fruit with high horticultural yield and use the breeding line ‘Solara’ as anexample. In addition, we suggest avenues of further investigation to understand theregulation and control of fruit carbohydrate content.

Introduction. Sweet cherryfruit is a very perishable commodity, because fruits decay and losewater rapidly after harvest as a consequence of their high respiratoryrate. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectof the combination of hot water plus essential oil treatments andhot water treatment alone on the quality of ‘0900 Ziraat’ sweetcherries during cold storage. Materials and methods.Fruits were divided into four groups and were treated by dippinginto water at 24 °C for 30 s (control), dipping into water at 60 °Cfor 30 s, and dipping into water at 60 °C for 30 s plus either mentholtreatment or thymol treatment. After treatments, all fruits werepacked in polypropylene bags and stored at 0–1 °C temperature and90–95% relative humidity for 45 days. Physical and chemical changeswere determined at 15-day intervals during storage. Resultsand discussion. All of the postharvest treatments improvedfruit quality characteristics compared with fruit of the control.According to the data, after 45 days of storage, combination treatments were found to be more effectivein controlling decay. The treated fruits had higher total anthocyaninand total phenolic compounds. In control fruits, total anthocyanin andtotal phenolic compounds initially showed a slight increase, buttheir accumulation significantly decreased with time.

Introduction. Chinese jujubeoriginated in China and has become a leading fruit tree in the northernpart of China with total production of 4,250,000 t in 2009 and totalplanting area of 1,500,000 ha. Among the reported 944 Chinese jujubecultivars or strains, ‘Zanhuangdazao’ is the unique natural triploid cultivar;it is characterized by big fruit, high yield and good adaptabilitycompared with the other diploid cultivars. Therefore, our groupbegan polyploid breeding through colchicine induction starting in2000. Cultivar origin. ‘Chenguang’ is a new Chinese jujubecultivar induced by colchicine on the stem apex of the diploid ‘Linyilizao’.Through three years of top-grafting and purification, its characteristicswere observed in grafted and top-grafted experimental orchards continually.In 2009, ‘Chenguang’ was released by the Hebei Forestry CultivarExamination and Approval Committee and became the unique tetraploid Chinesejujube cultivar in the world to date. Cultivar characteristics.The somatic chromosome number, botanical character, phenologicalphase, productivity and adaptability are given. ‘Chenguang’ is suitablefor growing in Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong Province, where the annual averagetemperature is 12–14 °C and rainfall is above 400 mm, or similar soiland climate conditions. Main cultural techniques. Propagation,the training system, fruit setting and disease control are explainedand recommended.