Fig. 1.

(A) Positions of the AZs of olive inmature and mature fruit. Arrows point to the fruit AZ of ARB and PIC olive cultivars. The appearance of the mature fruit AZ, located between the pedicel and fruit pericarp, of ARB and PIC cultivars before (A) and after (B) fruit removal. PIC mature fruits abscise naturally at 217 days post-anthesis (DPA). In this cultivar, abscission of fully black-ripe fruits occurred at the pedicel–fruit AZ. A white box indicates the position of the proximal fracture plane of the mature fruit AZ after fruit removal. (C) Schematic diagram showing a longitudinal section of olive fruit. The grey box indicates the position of the tissue sample of the olive AZ for ACC/MACC determination, RNA extraction, and NO production. Mature fruit AZs (AZ–AC) were manually dissected with a razor blade and separated by cutting 1 mm at the proximal side of the abscission fracture plane. Arrows indicates the position of the abscission fracture plane. (D) Cross-sections of positions corresponding to the white box in (B) and the grey box in (C). Scanning electron micrographs (SEMs) of the proximal (junction of pedicel) fracture plane of the AZ after fruit detachment of ARB and PIC cultivars. Scale bars: 400 μm. (E) Comparison of ACC and MACC content in olive fruit AZ–AC of both cultivars, and fruit detachment force (FDF) measurements of olive fruit during development and abscission. Fruit abscission was carefully observed by forcible removal or natural abscission of the olive fruit at different stages of development (42, 98, 154, and 217 DPA) of both cultivars. Data are the mean ±SD (n = 80). *Values that were determined by the t-test to be significantly different (P <0.05) from the preceding point. (This figure is available in colour at JXB online.)