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Fleshy fruits are characterized by having a developmentally and genetically controlled, highly intricate ripening process, leading to dramatic modifications in fruit size, texture, color, flavor, and aroma. Climacteric fruits such as tomato, pear, banana, and melon show a ripening-associated increase in respiration and ethylene production and these processes are well-documented. In contrast, the hormonal mechanism of fruit development and ripening in non-climacteric fruit, such as strawberry, grape, raspberry, and citrus, is not well characterized. However, recent studies have shown that non-climacteric fruit development and ripening, involves the coordinated action of different hormones, such as abscisic acid (ABA), auxin, gibberellins, ethylene, and others. In this review, we discuss and evaluate the recent research findings concerning the hormonal regulation of non-climacteric fruit development and ripening and their cross-talk by taking grape, strawberry, and raspberry as reference fruit species.

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Fragaria chiloensis is characterized for having great aroma and flavor properties. Using headspace-SPME different volatile compounds were identified and quantified during development and ripening of the fruit. The headspace was dominated by esters, butyl acetate, ethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate and ethyl hexanoate being the most abundant in fully ripe fruit. As esters are important for aroma and synthesized through alcohol acyltransferases (AAT), a full-length cDNA (FcAAT1) was isolated from F. chiloensis fruit which displayed the three motifs characteristic of most AATs. As the production of esters increased during ripening, a clear increment in FcAAT1 transcripts was observed in fruit tissue. A good correlation was found between AAT activity and the total content of esters, especially with acetates and hexanoates. Aroma-related esters displayed during ripening the same production profile as AAT activity. Therefore it can be suggested that the FcAAT1 gene may have a significant role in ester production of F. chiloensis fruit.

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