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Figure 1 : The different shading scenarios at the fruit scale and applied on two genotypes during fruit development and ripening.

Under climate changes, horticultural cropping systems should be adapted to improve their resilience and to ensure high productivity and quality of harvested products. In this context, managing phenolic compound accumulation in apple (Malus domestica) represents an important issue; these metabolites playing a major role in apple quality. Phenolic compounds are also involved in plant adaptation to their environment. Accordingly, their amounts vary with environmental conditions and especially with light variations. To decipher the impact of shading on the phenolic compound contents in apple fruit, this project combined ecophysiological, biochemical and epigenetic approaches thanks to the involvement of two groups working on fruit quality: he Research Institute on Horticulture and Seeds (IRHS) and the Plants and cropping Systems in Horticulture research unit (PSH).