On the cover:

'Fenjiao' (Musa ABB Pisang Awak) is a popular banana cultivar with good flavor and high resistance to abiotic stress, which is widely consumed and cultivated in China. The 'Fenjiao' fruit, however, has a short shelf life compared with other commercial cultivars and is prone to chilling injuries (CI) when exposed to low temperatures (below 11°C), resulting in fruit softening disorder (i.e. abnormal degradation of the cell wall and starch) and undesirable fruit color. In this issue, Song et. al., found that transcription factor MaCCCH33-Like2 interacts with MaEBF1 and MaABI5-like protein to positively regulate the genes related to starch and cell wall degradation. This work has thus identified a new regulatory module involving MaCCCH33-like2/MaEBF1/MaABI5-like in mediating fruit softening, which may be helpful to mitigate the effects of fruit softening disorder and improve the quality and commercial value of this fruit crop to further support rural tourism and rural revitalization in China.

The cover image shows 'Fenjiao' banana fruits artificially ripened on the tree.

Image Credit: Xiaoyang Zhu and Weixin Chen (South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China).