George Manganaris

George Manganaris

Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

The effectiveness of priming agents on qualitative attributes and phytochemical properties of strawberry fruits

George Manganaris is currently Associate Professor at Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) and Director of the CUT Fruit Sciences & Postharvest Group (www.fruitsciences.eu). To date, Dr. Manganaris is the author of 60 scientific papers in referred journals (mean impact factor: 5.4, 3600 citations, h-index=31).
His scientific interests include the quality evaluation/phytochemical profile of fleshy fruits with the use of physiological, biochemical and molecular approaches, the elucidation of fruit ripening syndrome with emphasis in the development of physiological disorders and overall the postharvest maintenance of fresh produce. In addition, he is involved in projects dealing with the application of environmentally friendly methods for maintaining quality of horticultural crops and the responsiveness of plants to abiotic stress conditions and/or priming agents. He is currently Principal Investigator of a Horizon Europe project dealing with the employment of priming agents in soft fruits (www.prime-soft.eu). Dr. Manganaris is Editor in Chief in Scientia Horticulturae and Editorial Board member in Postharvest Biology and Technology. He is Council Member and elected Vice Chair at the Division Temperate Tree Fruits at ISHS. In the past he has organized these ISHS symposiums.

The application of priming agents (PAs) is a promising strategy to enhance the nutritional content of fruits and overall fruit quality. In this regard, our study aimed to evaluate the effect of the pre-harvest application of some promising priming agents (melatonin (Mel), sodium alginate, melatonin/alginate (abbreviation), and putrescine (Put)) on the qualitative attributes and secondary metabolites of an early-harvested strawberry. PAs treatments were pre-harvest sprayed directly on the fruit at three successive developmental stages: large green (LG), small white (SW) and large white (LW). In addition, such agents were applied at postharvest level to dissect any potential benefits to shelf life performance.