Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of peach fruit during development
Résumé
Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging was performed to investigate peach quality traits during fruit development. The MRI measurements of multi-exponential relaxation times and apparent microporosity were studied in relation to the variations in biological parameters. The aim was to identify the MRI parameters that best describe variations in structure and composition of fruit tissues during development. Peach fruits were harvested at four developmental stages during the cell enlargement period (54, 61, 95 and 119 days after flowering). Two contrasted fruit loads were applied at the tree scale in order to induce variations in peach size and chemical composition. MRI imaging of the 5-mm median fruit plane were performed at 1.5T (Avanto, Simens) with the 0.8²mm² spatial resolution. Relaxation parameters were estimated from the 256-echo multi spin echo sequence with