In sweet cherry, fruit weight, firmness, and organoleptic quality are very important traits for both producers and consumers. Their genetic determinism has been analysed in three F1 sweet cherry progenies. ‘Regina’ × ‘Lapins’ (RxL), ‘Regina’ × ‘Garnet’ (R×G) and ‘Fercer’ × ‘Burlat’ (F×B), were analysed for fruit weight and firmness, during four to seven years. R×L was also analysed for pH and titratable acidity for three years. Major soluble carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose and sorbitol) and major organic acids (citrate and malate) were quantified during one year on R×L and F×B progenies. Genotyping was performed with the RosBREED’s cherry 6K SNP array v1 and linkage maps constructed with JoinMap 4.0. Many QTLs were detected for both fruit weight and firmness and in most cases in the same position, the most significant being detected on LG2, 5 and 6. Major QTLs for pH, titratable acidity and malic acid were identified on LG6, in the same region. On LG2 the QTL for fruit weight co-localised with a CELL NUMBER REGULATOR gene (CNR 12). For fruit weight and firmness, 14 candidate genes (CGs) were identified on the QTL on LG5 and 29 on the QTL on LG6. On LG5, three were selected for their potential involvement in fruit weight control: cytochrome p450 78A3-like, CNR1 and plac8 family protein. The 11 other CGs were selected for their potential involvement in fruit firmness. On LG6, three and 26 CGs were selected for their potential involvement in the control of fruit weight and firmness, respectively.
