ABSTRACT

Fruits are anatomically defined as a mature ovary and include carpel tissues in part or as whole. A simple fruit develops from a single matured ovary within a single flower. However, fruit crops comprise over 30 families encompassing simple, aggregate, multiple or accessory fruits, the distinctive feature for these classes being the number of ovaries and the tissues involved in the development of the fruit. Aggregate fruits comprise a number of matured ovaries formed in a single flower and are arranged over the surface of a single receptacle; multiple fruits consist of matured ovaries of many flowers often clustered together; and the accessory fruits develop from tissues surrounding the ovary (Coombe 1976). Differences in the morphology of fruits in each of these classes have led to their assignment to different groups, of which the fleshy fruits have received considerable attention due to their economic significance, particularly to manage their post-harvest shelf life. The succulent, flavorful and attractive tissues of the fleshy fruit serve to disperse the seeds, features that have led to their domestication and commercialization. Based on their respiration patterns during development, fleshy fruits have been classified as either climacteric or non-climacteric. In the climacteric fruits, respiration rates increase at the onset of ripening whereas a decrease in respiration rate characterizes the non-climacteric fruits; the respiratory climacteric is generally preceded by an increase in ethylene, a gaseous plant hormone (Mattoo and Suttle 1991, Mattoo and white 1991, Abeles et al. 1992, Giovannoni 2001).