摘要Fleshy fruit texture is a critically important quality characteristic of ripe fruit. Softening is an irrever-sible process which operates in most fleshy fruits during ripening which, together with changes in color and taste, contributes to improvements in mouthfeel and general attractiveness. Softening results mainly from the expression of genes en-coding enzymes responsible for cell wall mod-ifications but starch degradation and high levels of flavonoids can also contribute to texture change. Some fleshy fruit undergo lignification during de-velopment and post-harvest, which negatively af-fects eating quality. Excessive softening can also lead to physical damage and infection, particularly during transport and storage which causes severe supply chain losses. Many transcription factors (TFs) that regulate fruit texture by controlling the expression of genes involved in cell wall and starch metabolism have been characterized. Some TFs directly regulate cell wall targets, while others act as part of a broader regulatory program governing several aspects of the ripening process. In this review, we focus on advances in our un-derstanding of the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms governing fruit textural change during fruit development, ripening and post-harvest. Potential targets for breeding and future research directions for the control of texture and quality improvement are discussed.