Figure 1.

Postharvest regimes for ACO1-suppressed apples. Asterisks mark the point of 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene treatment. NE, No ethylene treatment; E, ethylene treatment; H, harvest; w, weeks. Lowercase letters represent sampling points. A, For the 2005 harvest (E1), apples were harvested and stored at 4°C for 1 month before they were warmed to 20°C for 24 h, and half were treated with 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene. Apple samplings are labeled a to e as follows: a, just before ethylene treatment; b, 4 h after ethylene treatment; c, 4 d (96 h) after ethylene treatment; d, 8 d (192 h) after ethylene treatment; e, 8-d no-ethylene control. Six apples were sampled at a time. B, For the 2007 harvest (E2), apples were sampled either immediately following ethylene treatment or after being store in the cold for 4 weeks. Sample times are labeled a to f as follows, with six apples in each group: a, sampled immediately; b, stored in an ethylene-free environment for 8 d before being sampled; c, sampled after being treated with 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene for 8 d; d to f, stored at 4°C for 4 weeks and then transferred to 20°C for 1 d as follows: d, sampled immediately; e and f, sampled following an 8-d treatment either with or without 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene. C, For the 2009 harvest (E3), apples were sampled following a room temperature treatment or a 0.5°C treatment. Sampling times are labeled a to i, with eight apples sampled at each time, as follows: a, sampled immediately; b, d, and e, stored in an ethylene-free environment at 20°C and sampled after 2 weeks of storage (b), after 4 weeks of storage (d), and after 6 weeks of storage (e); c, treated with 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene for 2 weeks; f, treated with 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene for 2 weeks after 4 weeks of storage at 20°C; g, h, and i, stored at 0.5°C in an ethylene-free environment for 4 weeks, then g was sampled immediately and h and i were transferred to 20°C and sampled after 2 weeks either with or without treatment with 100 μL L⁻¹ ethylene.