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Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences bannerContact Us linkSearch Site linkSite Map linkCTAHR News linkCTAHR Home link

Dr. Robert E. Paull
Department Chair, Professor of Horticulture
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Contact Information:

University of Hawaii at Manoa
Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences
3190 Maile Way, St. John 102
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822-2279

Office: St. John 102
Telephone: (808) 956-8389
Fax: (808) 956-3894

email: paull@hawaii.edu
Post-harvest Physiology and Handling of Tropical Fruits, Vegetables, and Ornamentals
Diversified agriculture is dependent on the development of postharvest handling procedures and technologies that assure consistent safe high quality commodities that have maximum postharvest life.
Current Projects
  • Project 1: Papaya fruit ripening is disrupted by heat treatments used for insect disinfestation. We are concerned with the changes in the enzymes involved in fruit softening. An enzyme possibly involved in softening is endoxylanase. We have purified and characterized this enzyme and isolated a full length cDNA clone. This clone is being used to determine whether this enzyme is involved in fruit softening and to study how insect disinfestation heat damages ripening fruit.

  • Project 2: Pineapple is being transformed to alter flower development and hence prevent precocious flower development. The research focuses on the ACC synthase involvement in flowering.

  • Project 3: New hybrid low acid pineapple clones have seasonal variation in the sugar to acid ratio that affects flavor. Our interest is the acid metabolism of fruit. The object is to determine how acid metabolism is controlled in the fruit during ripening.

  • Project 4: The vase life of tropical flower and foliage is of concern as postharvest insect disinfestation can significantly reduce vase life. Handling procedures and treatments are being developed to improve vase life and maintain quality.

  • Project 5. Seaweed is widely used in Hawaii and Asian as a food. The postharvest life of limu is the focus of this project. Preharvest factors may play a crucial role in the postharvest life of this species.
Selected Publications
  • Nakasone, H. Y.,and R. E. Paull. 1998. Tropical Fruits. CAB International, Wallingford, England. 445pp.
  • Paull, R. E., K. Gross, and Y. X. Qiu. 1999. Changes in papaya cell walls during fruit ripening. Postharvest Biology & Technology 16:79-89.
  • Paull, R. E. 1999. Effects of temperature and relative humidity on fresh commodity quality. Postharvest Biology & Technology 15:263-277.
  • Chen, C-C, and R. E. Paull. 2000. Sugar metabolism and pineapple fruit translucency. J. Amer Soc. Hort Sci. 125:558-562.
  • Zhou, Lili, D. A Christopher, and R. E. Paull. 2000. Defoliation and fruit removal effects on papaya fruit production, sugar accumulation, and sucrose metabolism. J. Amer. Soc Hort Sci. 125:644-652
  • Paull, R. E. and N. J. Chen. 2000. Heat treatments and fruit ripening. Postharvest Biology and Technology 21:21-37
  • Paull, R. E. and T. Chantrachit. 2001. Benzyladenine and the vase life of tropical ornamentals. Postharvest Biology & Technology 21:303-310.
  • Chen, C. C., and R. E. Paull. 2001. Fruit temperature and crown removal on the occurrence of pineapple fruit translucency. Scientia Horticulturae 88:85-96.
  • Zhou, Lili, and R. E. Paull. 2001. Sucrose metabolism during papaya (Carica papaya) fruit growth and ripening. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 126:351-357
  • Kim, M. S., P. H. Moore, F. Zee, M. M. M. Fitch, D. L. Steiger, R. M. Manshardt, R. E. Paull, R. A. Drew, T. Sekioka, and R. Ming. 2002. Genetic diversity of Carica papaya L. as revealed by AFLP markers. Genome 45:503-512.
  • Paull, R. E., Chen, C. C. 2002. Postharvest physiology, handling and storage of pineapple. pp 253-279. In. Pineapple: Botany, Production and Uses. Bartholomew, D. P., Paull, R. E., Rohrbach, K.G., (eds.) CABI, Wallingford, United Kingdom.
  • Chen, Nancy, J., Robert E. Paull. 2003. Endoxylanase expressed during papaya fruit ripening: purification, cloning and characterization. Functional Plant Biology 30:433-441.
  • Zhou, L. L., C-C Chen, R. Ming, D. A. Christopher, R. E. Paull. 2003. Apoplastic invertase and its enhanced expression and post translation control during fruit maturation and ripening. Journal of the American Society for Horticulture Science 128:628-635.
  • Jaroenkit, Teeranuch and Robert E. Paull 2003. Postharvest Handling of Heliconia, Red Ginger, and Bird-of-Paradise. HortTechnology 13:259-266
  • Paull, R. E., Chen, C. C. 2002. Postharvest physiology, handling and storage of pineapple. pp 253-279. In. Pineapple: Botany, Production and Uses. Bartholomew, D. P., Paull, R. E., Rohrbach, K.G., (eds.) CABI, Wallingford, United Kingdom.
  • Kays, Stanley J. and Robert E. Paull. 2004. Postharvest Biology. Exon Press, Athens, Georgia.
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Last updated on 1/15/2004