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Changes in Morphology, Metabolism and Composition of Cuticular Wax in Zucchini Fruit During Postharvest Cold Storage.

ABSTRACT: Cuticle composition is an important economic trait in agriculture, as it is the first protective barrier of the plant against environmental conditions. The main goal of this work was to study the role of the cuticular wax in maintaining the postharvest quality of zucchini fruit, by comparing two commercial varieties with contrasting behavior against low temperatures; the cold-tolerant variety 'Natura', and the cold-sensitive 'Sinatra', as well as 'Sinatra' fruit with induced-chilling tolerance through a preconditioning treatment (15°C for 48 h). The freshly-harvested 'Natura' fruit had a well-detectable cuticle with a significant lower permeability and a subset of 15 up-regulated cuticle-related genes. SEM showed that zucchini epicuticular waxes mainly consisted of round-shaped crystals and clusters of them, and areas with more dense crystal deposition were found in fruit of 'Natura' and of preconditioned 'Sinatra'. The cuticular wax load per surface was higher in 'Natura' than in 'Sinatra' fruit at harvest and after 14 days at 4°C. In addition, total cuticular wax load only increased in 'Natura' and preconditioned 'Sinatra' fruit with cold storage. With respect to the chemical composition of the waxes, the most abundant components were alkanes, in both 'Natura' and 'Sinatra', with similar values at harvest. The total alkane content only increased in 'Natura' fruit and in the preconditioned 'Sinatra' fruit after cold storage, whereas the amount of total acids decreased, with the lowest values observed in the fruit that showed less chilling injury (CI) and weight loss. Two esters were detected, and their content also decreased with the storage in both varieties, with a greater reduction observed in the cold-tolerant variety in response to low temperature. Gene expression analysis showed significant differences between varieties, especially in CpCER1-like and CpCER3-like genes, involved in alkane production, as well as in the transcription factors CpWIN1-like and CpFUL1-like, associated with cuticle development and epidermal wax accumulation in other species. These results suggest an important role of the alkane biosynthetic pathway and cuticle morphology in maintaining the postharvest quality of zucchini fruit during the storage at low temperatures.

SUBMITTER: Carvajal F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8691734 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Storage at low temperatures is a common practice to prolong postharvest life of fruit and vegetables with a minimal negative impact on human/environmental health. Storage at low temperatures, however, can be restricted due to produce susceptibility to non-freezing chilling temperatures, when injuries such as physiological disorders and decays may result in unmarketable produce. We have investigated tomato fruit response to postharvest chilling stress in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population developed from a cross between a chilling-sensitive cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) breeding line and a chilling-tolerant inbred accession of the tomato wild species S. pimpinellifolium L. Screening of the fruit of 148 RILs under cold storage (1.5°C) indicated presence of significant variations in chilling tolerance, manifested by varying degrees of fruit injury. Two extremely contrasting groups of RILs were identified, chilling-tolerant and chilling-sensitive RILs. The RILs in the two groups were further investigated under chilling stress conditions, and several physiological parameters, including weight loss, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters Fv/Fm, and Performance Index (PI), were determined to be efficient markers for identifying response to chilling stress in postharvest fruit. The Fv/Fm values reflected the physiological damages endured by the fruit after cold storage, and PI was a sensitive marker for early changes in photosystem II function. These two parameters were early indicators of chilling response before occurrence of visible chilling injuries. Antioxidant activities and ascorbic acid content were significantly higher in the chilling-tolerant than the chilling-sensitive lines. Further, the expression of C-repeat/DREB binding factors (CBFs) genes swiftly changed within 1-hr of fruit exposure to the chilling temperature, and the SlCBF1 transcript level was generally higher in the chilling-tolerant than chilling-sensitive lines after 2-hr exposure to the low temperature. This research demonstrates the presence of potential genetic variation in fruit chilling tolerance in the tomato RIL population. Further investigation of the RIL population is underway to better understand the genetic, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms involved in postharvest fruit chilling tolerance in tomato.

Project description:Purpose:Bamboo shoots rapidly lose water and accumulate lignin when stored under room temperature, while low temperature conditioning (LTC, 4℃) can alleviate lignification and reduce weightlessness rate. However, few transcriptional response and profiling datasets are available to explore the LTC mechanism of bamboo shoots.The goal of this study is to provides insights into the regulation of Lei bamboo (Phyllostachys violascens) shoots during postharvest cold storage by transcriptome analysis. Methods:Total RNA was extracted using RNAiso Plus (Takara, Japan) according to the protocol, and after quality testing, was used for library construction and transcriptome sequencing by Illumina Novaseq™ 6000. The quality-controlled reads were aligned to the Phyllostachys edulis reference genome (http://gigadb.org/dataset/100498). The edgeR program25 was used for differential expression analyses. Results: After raw data filtering, a high clean data rate from each sample was achieved, and the assessment result for the clean data by FastQC all demonstrated that our sequencing data was of high quality, full representativeness and validity. Compared with CK, a total of 7,452 DEGs were identified during LT storage. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) and principle component analysis (PCA) results all suggested a high correlation among all samples. The above results suggest an effective LT treatment of postharvest bamboo shoots and a high-quality bioinformatics analysis of our RNA-seq results. Conclusions: Our study represents the first detailed analysis of Lei bamboo (Phyllostachys violascens) shoots during postharvest cold storage transcriptomes, with biologic replicates, generated by RNA-seq technology. The optimized data analysis workflows reported here should provide a framework for comparative investigations of expression profiles. We conclude that RNA-seq based transcriptome characterization would reveal the essence of ripening and senescence of fruits and vegetables.

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Changes in Morphology, Metabolism and Composition of Cuticular Wax in Zucchini Fruit During Postharvest Cold Storage.

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