Tomato is the second most important non-cereal crop after potato in terms of consumption and agro-based industries worldwide. In this study, we examined fruit quality characteristics and cell wall-associated fruit softening of three different-coloured tomatoes, ‘Sarikiz’ with yellow, ‘Moda’ with orange and ‘Cherry’ with red colour, harvested at the mature green, breaker, and ripe stages, and stored for the following 3 weeks. Fruit firmness significantly declined in all varieties and reached the softest level in all fruits harvested at the ripe stage and stored for 21 days. The decrease in fruit firmness was related to higher water-soluble pectin, higher expression level of cell wall-related genes, but not related to the integrity of fruit flesh in post-harvest storage conditions. The expression level of SlPSY1 was the highest in Cherry and the lowest in Sarikiz varieties. These results indicate that fruit softening in post-harvest storage conditions is directly related to harvested ripening stage, regardless of the variety.

就全球消费和农业产业而言，番茄是仅次于马铃薯的第二大非谷类作物。在这项研究中，我们检查了三种不同颜色的西红柿的果实品质特征和细胞壁相关的果实软化，黄色的“Sarikiz”、橙色的“Moda”和红色的“樱桃”，在成熟的绿色、破碎、和成熟阶段，并在接下来的 3 周内储存。所有品种的果实硬度均显着下降，并在成熟期收获并储存 21 天的所有果实中达到最软的水平。果实硬度降低与水溶性果胶含量较高、细胞壁相关基因表达水平较高有关，但与采后贮藏条件下果肉的完整性无关。SlPSY1的表达水平樱桃最高，Sarikiz 品种最低。这些结果表明，无论品种如何，收获后储存条件下的果实软化与收获成熟阶段直接相关。