Junfeng Guan

Pear, one of the oldest fruit crops cultivated by humans, is widely consumed worldwide due to its sweet taste, juicy texture, and potential health benefit. Pears are commonly classified into European, Japanese and Korean, and Chinese pear varieties. Beyond being consumed fresh fruit, pear can be processed into dehydrated slice, canned product, wine, juice, paste, etc. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), pear fruit and its products have been used to treat fever, suppress cough, and quench thirst. Recent studies have found that pear is a rich source of bioactive compounds. This review compiles a table of the bioactive compounds in pear fruit, which contain 43 phenolic acids, 64 flavonoids, 24 triterpenoids, and 18 additional compounds. These bioactive compounds contribute to various health benefits, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, lung protection, hepatoprotective, anti-obesity, anti-diabetic, cardiovascular protective, anticancer, antimicrobial, skin lightening activities. The levels of bioactive compounds in pear fruit and its products vary with cultivar, fruit tissue, orchard management, postharvest storage, and processing factor. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of the health function of pear fruit and its products, and aims to increase the added value and promote further development of the pear industry.

Fruit quality is one of the most important economic traits of fruit crops, directly influencing market prices and orchard revenues. Enhancing fruit quality has therefore become a critical objective in both fruit production and scientific research. External quality traits of fruits typically include size, coloration, shape, uniformity, and consistency. Internal quality traits refer to the nutritional value of fruits, which largely determine their flavor and palatability. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in understanding the formation and regulatory mechanisms of fruit quality, with numerous key functional genes associated with quality traits being identified. While substantial advancements have been achieved in studying specific aspects of fruit quality, there remains a lack of comprehensive and systematic reviews addressing the overall physiology of fruit quality, the interplay among various quality traits, and the diversity of regulatory mechanisms. Using Chinese pears as an example, this review summarizes the research progress in fruit quality regulation over the past five years. Key aspects include metabolic regulation of fruit traits such as sweetness, color, texture, and physiological disorders; factors influencing stone cell formation; sugar content regulation; roles of plant hormones including ethylene, gibberellins, and abscisic acid; translational regulation and post-translational modifications such as ubiquitination, methylation, and acetylation; as well as the application of genomic sequencing technologies. Furthermore, the review offers practical suggestions for improving pear fruit quality and provides insights for researchers in related fields. Finally, future trends in fruit quality research are discussed, offering a forward-looking perspective for advancing the field.

The entire transportation process of ‘crown’ pears from harvest to consumption is primarily refrigerated.

Postharvest fruit rot caused by pathogens is a serious problem in the pear industry. This study investigated the fungal diversity and main pathogens and identified a new pathogen in the stored ‘Huangguan’ pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.), the dominant pear variety in northern China. We sampled 20 refrigeration houses from five main producing regions in Hebei Province and used Illumina sequencing technology to detect the fungal composition. Alternaria (56.3%) was the most abundant fungus, followed by Penicillium (9.2%) and Monilinia (6.2%). We also isolated and identified nine strains of Alternaria and four strains of Penicillium. Moreover, we observed a new postharvest fruit disease in ‘Huangguan’ pear caused by Stemphylium eturmiunum, which was confirmed by phylogenetic analysis by combining the sequences of three conserved genes, including internal transcribed spacer, gapdh, and calmodulin. This study marks the first documentation of S. eturmiunum causing fruit rot in ‘Huangguan’ pears, offering valuable insights for identifying and controlling this newly identified postharvest disease.