Postharvest Treatment with Abscisic Acid Alleviates Chilling Injury in Zucchini Fruit by Regulating Phenolic Metabolism and Non-Enzymatic Antioxidant System

Abstract

Reports show that phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) is involved in reducing zucchini postharvest chilling injury. During the storage of harvested fruit at low temperatures, chilling injury symptoms were associated with cell damage through the production of reactive oxygen species. In this work, we have studied the importance of different non-enzymatic antioxidants on tolerance to cold stress in zucchini fruit treated with ABA. The application of ABA increases the antioxidant capacity of zucchini fruit during storage through the accumulation of ascorbate, carotenoids and polyphenolic compounds. The quantification of specific phenols was performed by UPLC/MS-MS, observing that exogenous ABA mainly activated the production of flavonoids. The rise in all these non-enzymatic antioxidants due to ABA correlates with a reduction in oxidative stress in treated fruit during cold stress. The results showed that the ABA mainly induces antioxidant metabolism during the first day of exposure to low temperatures, and this response is key to avoiding the occurrence of chilling injury. This work suggests an important protective role of non-enzymatic antioxidants and polyphenolic metabolism in the prevention of chilling injury in zucchini fruit.

Exogenous Calcium Alleviates the Photosynthetic Inhibition and Oxidative Damage of the Tea Plant under Cold Stress

“…For instance, significant increases in ABA content were observed in the leaves of wild strawberries after low temperature stress [47], and cold stress markedly increased the ABA content in maize [48]. Exogenous ABA could also alleviate cold-induced oxidative damage in cold-sensitive and cold-resistant Bermudagrass genotypes [49] and ABA spraying of zucchini fruit could regulate phenolic metabolism and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems to enhance cold tolerance [50]. ABA has been shown to enhance the levels of osmotic adjustment substances and ROS-scavenging enzymes in plants by modulating the expression of stress-responsive genes, consequently leading to an improvement in their cold tolerance [51,52].…”

Drought Protective Effects of Exogenous ABA and Kinetin on Lettuce: Sugar Content, Antioxidant Enzyme Activity, and Productivity

“…Multiple studies have shown that the exogenous application of ABA triggers the activation of the antioxidant defense system and that it is capable of improving plants under unfavorable environmental conditions [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. It has been concluded that exogenous ABA has a positive effect on the expression of genes encoding enzymes from the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in experiments with maize grown under water deficit [ 15 ].…”

Review of recent advances in post-harvest techniques for tropical cut flowers and future prospects: Heliconia as a case-study

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