# Profiling Taste and Aroma Compound Metabolism during Apricot Fruit Development and Ripening
## 5 Conclusions  
Overall, sucrose and glucose were the major sugars in apricot. All sugars increased rapidly throughout the maturation and ripening process, the accumulation pattern of sugars in apricot converted from glucose-predominated to sucrose-predominated during fruit development and  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Sensory Attributes**} & \multicolumn{5}{c}{**S4**} & \multicolumn{5}{c}{**S5**} \\ \cline{2-10}  & **DX** & **HY** & **YC** & **LT** & **BX** & **DX** & **HY** & **YC** & **LT** & **BX** \\ \hline Sweetness & 5.61 & 4.93 & 4.82 & 6.87 & 6.14 & 8.42 & 6.78 & 6.23 & 8.77 & 7.53 \\ Sourness & 5.49 & 4.46 & 4.23 & 4.92 & 4.36 & 3.44 & 3.82 & 2.17 & 2.54 & 3.36 \\ Aroma & 6.21 & 5.78 & 5.24 & 7.36 & 6.89 & 7.63 & 6.25 & 6.84 & 8.79 & 8.13 \\ Flavor & 6.54 & 5.08 & 5.57 & 7.54 & 7.21 & 7.91 & 6.45 & 6.22 & 8.56 & 7.81 \\ Acceptability & 6.93 & 5.74 & 5.36 & 8.12 & 7.76 & 8.13 & 7.17 & 7.60 & 9.03 & 8.42 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: Global acceptability and sensory attributes of apricot fruit of stage 4 (S4) and stage 5 (S5).  
ripening. SS, SO and SDH are under a tight developmental control and might play important roles in sugar accumulation of apricot fruit. Almost all organic acids identified increased at first and then fell throughout whole development process. Quinate, malate and citrate were the most abundant organic acids. At early development stage, quinate and malate are the major organic acids, with the rapid increase of citrate at the maturation stage; quinate, malate and citrate become the major organic acids at the ripening stage. A total of 18 aroma compounds were measured and the crucial components of apricot fruit were found to be \(\gamma\)-decalactone and \(\beta\)-ionone. Aldehydes and terpen decreased significantly during apricot development and ripening, whereas lactones steeply increased with fruit ripening. \(\beta\)-Ionone, \(\gamma\)-decalactone, sucrose and citrate are the key flavor components contributing to the consumer's acceptance in apricot fruit. Especially in light colored cultivars, volatile apocarotenoids such as \(\beta\)-ionone have important role in consumer preference, and CCD may be involved in formation of these compounds. These results provide important information for flavor quality regulation of fruit apricot and consumer-oriented breeding.  
Supplementary materials can be found at [[http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/17/7/998/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/17/7/998/s1)]([http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/17/7/998/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/17/7/998/s1)).  
We thank [PERSON] (Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland) for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31471855 and 31260467).  
[PERSON] [PERSON] conceived and designed the experiments; [PERSON] and [PERSON] performed the experiments; [PERSON] provide the fruit material; [PERSON] analyzed the data and wrote the paper.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.