Cell wall composition of the skin and flesh tissue of crisp and standard texture southern highbush blueberry genotypes

BACKGROUND: Blueberry cultivars with very firm, crisp fruit textures have been developed to increase consumer acceptance and as an aid in production and marketing. The basis for the crisp fruit texture is unknown. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this studywas to compare the bioyield force (BF) and cellwall composition of crisp and standard texture blueberry genotypes. METHODS: Bioyield force of seven southern highbush blueberry genotypes having standard ('Springhigh', 'Star', Windsor') and crisp ('Sweetcrisp', FL06-561, FL06-562, and FL98-325) fruit texture was measured on fresh, whole fruits. Dry weight, alcohol insoluble residue (AIR), uronic acids (UA), and neutral sugars (NS) were then measured on separated flesh and skin tissue. RESULTS: The BF of the standard texture genotypes was significantly less than all four crisp genotypes. There were differences in the dry weight and AIR among genotypes, but these differences did not correspond to crisp and standard texture classes. There was no significant difference among genotypes in the measurement of UA or NS. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that there is a phenotypic difference between crisp and standard texture blueberry genotypes that can be detected with BF measurements, but that quantitative differences among total cell wall material, pectins, and neutral sugars were not responsible for the variability of these texture types.