Ripening and Storage Life Extension of the Native American Pawpaw Fruit

The goal of this project is to provide a base of knowledge about pavvpaw fruit ripening and its response to common preharvest treatments and postharvest storage conditions that can be used to dev~lop a preliminary set of recommendations for commercial postharvest storage of pawpaw and set the stage for future horticultural, technological, and molecular-genetic studies to manipulate pawpaw ripening. Within this contextm the specific objectives are to 1) correlate patterns of ethylene biosynthesis and respiration in soluble solids, and icrease in aroma volatile production, 2) determine if the temperature and duration of cold storage and post-storage ripening ifluences the patterns of ethylene biosynthesis and acquisition of quality traits, and 3) determine if preharvest and postharvest OGR treatments to manipulate thylene production and sensitivity, and fruit ripening, allow normal ripening after the treatment.