Patent ID: 8498819

Claim:
A method for determining genetic or protein/enzymatic markers for, at the time of harvest, predicting the expected value of a relevant quality feature for an agricultural and/or horticultural product at a given time during or after harvest, comprising the steps of: a. defining a quantitative or relative measuring value for the relevant quality feature for the specific agricultural or horticultural product; b. determining the expression levels of a set of genes, preferably related to the specific quality feature, or the protein concentration of a set of proteins/enzymes, preferably related to the specific quality feature, at several points in time before, during and after harvest; c determining the correlation of the expression levels determined in b) or the protein concentrations determined in b) with the value (according to the definition determined in a)) of the quality feature specific for that agricultural or horticultural product at a given time during or after harvest; and d. identification of those genes from b) that show a rising or falling expression level profile or those proteins/enzymes from b) that show a rising or falling concentration course and have a correlation coefficient with the value of the quality factor at a given time during or after harvest, in the range of 0.3-1, preferably in the range of 0.4-1, more preferably in the range of 0.5-1, more preferably in the range of 0.6-1, more preferably in the range of 0.7-1, more preferably in the range of 0.8-1, most preferably in the range of 0.9-1; e. determining a calibration line which, for a specific postharvest path, fixes the relation between gene activity of the genes or the value of the concentration of the protein/enzyme at the time of harvest with the highest correlation coefficient determined in 1d and the value of the specific quality feature at a given time during or after harvest for the specific agricultural or horticultural product; f. and optionally determining specific calibration lines based on the above procedure for different types of postharvest paths.