During the storage and transportation processes, the occurrence of core browning in ‘Yali’ pear fruit due to adversity injury can be easily mitigated by implementing different cooling methods, especially in advanced maturity fruits. In this study, ‘Yali’ pears at an advanced maturity stage were subjected to slow cooling and rapid cooling treatment. The quality-related physiological percentage and severity, and the rate of good fruits were determined, and RNA-seq was used to explore the effects of different cooling methods on pathways related to core browning in advanced-maturity pears at the transcriptional level. The results indicated that, compared with slow cooling treatment, rapid cooling significantly inhibited core browning in advanced-maturity ‘Yali’ pears. Measurements of quality-related physiological indexes suggested that rapid cooling treatment led to higher SSC content, firmness, L* value, and b* value, indicating better brightness, coloration, and higher soluble solid content, which are desirable for commercial sale. Rapid cooling effectively suppressed the physiological metabolism of ‘Yali’ pears, delaying fruit senescence compared with slow-cooling treatment. Furthermore, the RNA-Seq sequencing results revealed that pathways related to browning are involved in hormone signal transduction pathways, which are associated with resistance and aging processes of pear fruit. In summary, rapid cooling treatment delayed the core browning of advanced maturity of ‘Yali’ pears, indicating that the core browning of ‘Yali’ pears is related to the cooling method, and the mechanism of rapid cooling in reducing the core browning of advanced maturity of ‘Yali’ pears was by delaying the aging process of the fruit. This provides a new perspective for alleviating the core browning of advanced-maturity ‘Yali’ pears during storage and transportation, and provides a theoretical reference for studying the mechanism of core browning of ‘Yali’ pears.

The fruiting bodies of shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) are highly susceptible to postharvest quality deterioration due to their loose tissue, high moisture, and active metabolism. Low-dose ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation, a green, safe, low-cost, and efficient physical treatment especially suitable for high-moisture and metabolically active produce, offers a promising solution to this problem for the postharvest preservation of shiitake mushrooms. In this study, the effects of different doses of UV-C irradiation (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 kJ·m⁻²) on the postharvest quality of shiitake mushrooms were systematically compared by measuring weight loss, respiration intensity, cap opening percentage, firmness, color (L*, a*, b*), electrolyte leakage, MDA content, antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, CAT, POD, PAL), chitin content, chitinase activity, and the expression of LeCHI and LeCDA genes. The results showed that UV-C irradiation at 5 kJ m⁻² significantly delayed the increase in weight loss (by approximately 32% at day 15 compared to control) and reduced respiration rate (by 25–35% during days 3–9) and cap opening rate (27.3% vs. 48.0% in control at day 15) while maintaining higher firmness and better color retention over the control group. Furthermore, this treatment effectively inhibited electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde accumulation, enhanced the activities of SOD, POD, CAT, and PAL, maintained chitin content, and downregulated the expression of chitinase and cell wall degradation-related genes. Thus, 5 kJ m⁻² UV-C irradiation is effective in maintaining postharvest quality and extending the storage time of shiitake mushrooms.