Pre-storage conditioning treatment reduces physiological disorders by mediating the targeted primary metabolites in ‘Chuhwangbae’ pears during shelf life after cold storage

The fruit of the late season ‘Chuhwangbae’ Asian pear cultivar is prone to the incidence of physiological disorders during cold storage and following shelf life. However, pre-storage conditioning treatments have been used to reduce the incidence and severity of numerous storage disorders in cold-stored Asian pears during cold storage and shelf life. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of a pre-storage conditioning treatment at 22 °C for seven days on fruit quality attributes, the incidence and severity of physiological disorders, and targeted primary metabolites in the fruit of late season ‘Chuhwangbae’ Asian pear cultivar for a shelf life of 21 days at 22 °C following three months of cold storage at 0.5 °C with 90% of relative humidity. The peel blackening, cortex browning, core browning, and cavity were reduced by pre-storage conditioning treatment during shelf life after short-term cold storage. Although flesh firmness responded inconsistently in ealier shelf life, titratable acidity (TA) was lower in pre-storage conditioned fruit than in untreated fruit and weight loss and the ratio of soluble solids content (SSC) to TA were higher in pre-storage conditioned fruit compared to untreated fruit as a control. The cortex hue angle values of the fruit colour variables were higher in pre-storage conditioned fruit than in the untreated fruit. The pre-storage conditioning treatment notably affected threonine and total amino acids among the targeted primary metabolites during shelf life after cold storage. The correlation coefficient network indicated that the cortex browning and cavity were positively correlated with fumaric acid, sorbitol, and sucrose in the pre-storage conditioned fruit. Therefore, the results suggested that pre-storage conditioning treatment should be highly effective in reducing the incidence and severity of physiological disorders by mediating primary metabolism during the shelf life after cold storage.