Preharvest bagging is a simple, grower-friendly and safe physical protection technique commonly applied to many fruits, and the application of different fruit bags can have various effects. To explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the fruit quality effects of different bagging treatments, digital gene expression (DGE) profiling of bagged and unbagged ‘Chili’ (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.) pear pericarp during development was performed. Relative to unbagged fruit, a total of 3022 and 769 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in the polyethylene (PE)-bagged and non-woven fabric-bagged fruit, respectively. DEGs annotated as photosynthesis-antenna proteins and photosynthesis metabolism pathway were upregulated in non-woven fabric-bagged fruit but downregulated in the PE-bagged fruit. Non-woven fabric bagging inhibited lignin synthesis in ‘Chili’ pear pericarp by downregulating DEGs involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis; consequently, the fruit lenticels in non-woven fabric-bagged fruit were smaller than those in the other treatments. The results indicate that the non-woven fabric bagging method has a positive effect on the appearance of ‘Chili’ pear fruit but neither of the two bagging treatments is conducive to the accumulation of soluble sugar.

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