Morphological Changes to Fruit Development Induced by GA₃ Application in Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L.)

Cherry (Prunus avium) fruits are important sources of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in the human diet; however, they contain a large stone, making them inconvenient to eat 'on the move' and process. The exogenous application of gibberellic acid (GA₃) can induce parthenocarpy in a variety of fruits during development. Here, we showed that the application of GA₃ to sweet cherry unpollinated pistils acted as a trigger for fruit set and permitted the normal formation of fruit up to a period of twenty-eight days, indicating that gibberellins are involved in the activation of the cell cycle in the ovary wall cells, leading to fruit initiation. However, after this period, fruit development ceased and developing fruit began to be excised from the branch by 35 days post treatment. This work also showed that additional signals are required for the continued development of fully mature parthenocarpic fruit in sweet cherry.