Fruit Seed Dispersal and Germination
Why are some fruits sweet and some sour, whereas others have no specific taste?
Most fruits offer a distinctive and characteristic taste. Fruits such as watermelon, grapes, apples, and plums are sweet in taste while lemons, grapefruits and oranges are sour. The taste of any fruit depends on the compounds present in it. Fructose, acids, vitamins, starch, proteins and cellulose can all impact taste, either singularly or when combined in different proportions with each other (Mennella & Trabulsi, 2012). Those fruits with higher levels of fructose are typically sweeter; those with more acids tend to be sourer. The rules are not always hard and fast, however. Oranges, for example, have nearly equal quantities of fructose and acids, and are therefore both sweet and sour.
The ripening process or variety of a fruit can also impact overall taste. As some fruits ripen the quantity of acid can decrease or increase (Rajjou, et.al. 2009). That explains why fruit such as raw peaches are sour or bland, but ripe ones are sweet. Similarly, the starch found in raw bananas is later converted into fructose when the fruit ripens, which makes the banana taste much sweeter. Sour fruits such as lemons and limes do not taste sweet even after they are ripe due to the presence of excessive amounts of acids. Varieties of fruit may also lead to differences in overall taste. Variations in soil quality, climate, fertilizers, and water quality may change the proportion of compounds within the fruit, resulting in varieties of the same fruit having markedly different tastes (Mennella & Trabulsi,...
Fruit and Seed Dispersal The taste of a fruit is always determined by the content of some ingredients including cellulose, proteins, starch, vitamins, some acids, fructose, and sugar that are mixed inside the fruit in different proportions depending on the type of fruit. Most of the raw fruits tend to be sour when growing and when they become ripe, their taste changes to sweet. This change is brought about due to
The size of the petiole can be increased or decreased through use of gamma radiation. XI. The Effect of Mutation Breeding on Shoots and Stem The initiation of shoots is controlled by the large number of genes in higher plants. This is clearly demonstrated in the alternations in shoots resulting following treatment with a mutagen. The increase in the number of shoots has many benefits which includes the increase in the
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