Transcriptomics analysis of mangosteen ripening revealed active regulation of ethylene, anthocyanin and xanthone biosynthetic genes.

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana Linn.) is known as the "Queen of Fruits" due to its sweet and unique taste. The fruit also contains beneficial compounds such as anthocyanins and xanthones which have pharmacological properties including anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. Mangosteen has unique ripening behavior whereby the fruit undergoes full ripening (up to Stage 6 (S6), dark purple) only when harvested at the middle ripening stage (Stage 2 (S2), appearance of pink spots) onwards. This is unlike most other climacteric fruits which can ripen completely when harvested at the initial green stage (Stage 0, S0). However, information governing the ripening regulation of mangosteen is limited particularly at the molecular level. Hence, transcriptomics analyses on mangosteen pericarp was performed at different ripening stages; S0 (initial stage), S2 (middle stage), and S6 (final stage), revealing 250,680 unique transcripts, of which 6233 were differentially expressed transcripts (DETs). Furthermore, the benchmarking universal single-copy orthologs (BUSCO)...