Treatment with 24-epibrassinolide protects ‘Youhou’ sweet persimmon fruit against chilling injury during cold storage

• EBR treatment alleviates chilling injury in persimmon fruits during cold storage. • EBR treatment increases the content of ascorbic acid, glutathione, and anthocyanin. • DEGs and pathways associated with cold resistance in persimmon fruits were identified. Sweet persimmons are prone to rapid softening after harvest. While this ripening can be delayed by exposure to low temperatures, the cold-sensitive nature of these fruits can also lead to a risk of chilling injury (CI). This study explores the impact of the 24-epibrassinolide (EBR) treatment of ‘Youhou’ sweet persimmon fruit on CI when stored at 1°C. These analyses revealed that EBR treatment was sufficient to markedly limit the increase in CI index while also suppressing malondialdehyde accumulation and relative electrolyte leakage. In addition to lowering total H 2 O 2 content, treatment with EBR reduced the rate of O 2 −· production and increased the content of ascorbic acid, glutathione, procyanidine, and anthocyanin in these fruits. RNA-sequencing analyses led to the respective identification of 1072 and 601 upregulated and downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and these DEGs were found to be associated with the anthocyanin biosynthesis, brassinosteroid biosynthesis, and plant hormone signal transduction pathways. EBR treatment was also linked to the differential expression of 159 transcription factors. Together, these data provide strong evidence for the ability of EBR treatment to protect against CI in ‘Youhou’ sweet persimmons, potentially through the enhancement of antioxidant capacity as a result of the accumulation of ascorbic acid, glutathione, and procyanidine.