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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 4/11/2012 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Kidd and West’s discovery of the climacteric in apples in the 1920s and Blackman’s works on respiration of fruits in same time established the basis of modern postharvest plant physiology. Commercial use of controlled atmosphere rapidly expanded in the 1950s along with the in depth research. Ethylene was found to be a plant senescence regulator in 1917, however, the systematic research was not initiated until the 1950s. Yang’s discovery of the ethylene biosynthesis pathway in 1979 and Sisler’s finding of 1-mthylcyclopropene as an efficient inhibitor of ethylene action in 1996 offered a revolutionary tool for postharvest research and industry. New postharvest research and development needs include developing new genotypes for crops and postharvest technologies to enhance flavor and nutritional quality of horticultural crops; enhancing food safety and food security by fast and reliable microbial and toxic compound detection, improved traceability; and application of new technologies to postharvest storage and processing, such as nano-technology, UV-B and C illumination, and treatments of flavor-enhancement and antimicrobial agents. Current developments in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics have provided more efficient and accurate tools for postharvest research. |
