Abstract
The plant growth regulator forchlorfenuron is often applied to promote fruit setting and development in cucumber production. However, the effect of forchlorfenuron on the appearance and nutritional quality of cucumber is unknown. In the present study, forchlorfenuron was applied to female flowers 1 day before anthesis and at the day of anthesis. The application of forchlorfenuron successfully induced parthenocarpic fruit formation in cucumber. In addition, cytokinin-responsive genes were upregulated under forchlorfenuron treatment. Fruit treated with forchlorfenuron did not differ from pollinated fruit in shape, texture and major nutrients, such as protein, total flavonoids and vitamin C, with the exception of the lower phenolic acid content. Overall, our finding suggests that forchlorfenuron could be vital in promoting the parthenocarpic fruit set without altering the quality of cucumber.
Highlights
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), which belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, is an important vegetable crop that is widely cultivated worldwide
Significantly increased fresh weight and overall yield [9]. These results indicate that the application of plant growth regulators could enhance the parthenocarpy fruit formation
We firstly examined the effect of exogenous forchlorfenuron on cucumber fruit development
Summary
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), which belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, is an important vegetable crop that is widely cultivated worldwide. In China, the cultivated area of cucumber is 1.258 million hectares, with an annual output of 70.338 million tons, ranking first in the world (FAOSTAT 2019, http://faostat3.fao.org, 30 March 2021). Parthenocarpy is the development of fruit without pollination or fertilization [1]. Parthenocarpic fruit formation occurs in many horticulture crops such as tomato, grapes, watermelon and cucumber [1,2,3,4]. Parthenocarpic fruit development has become an important agronomic trait in horticulture crop breeding, which determines the fruit yield. The parthenocarpy in cucumber is often adversely affected by low temperature and low light, which impede flowering and pollination of cucumbers, and lead to low yields and abnormal fruit [5,6]
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