Pre-harvest climate and post-harvest acclimation to cold prevent from superficial scald development in Granny Smith apples

Abstract

Superficial scald is one of the most serious postharvest physiological disorders that can affect apples after a prolonged cold storage period. This study investigated the impact of pre-and post-harvest climatic variations on superficial scald in a susceptible apple cultivar. Fruit batches with contrasting phenotypes for superficial scald incidence were identified among several years of "Granny Smith" fruit production. The "low scald" year pre-harvest climate was characterised by a warm period followed by a sudden decrease in temperature, playing the part of an in vivo acclimation to cold storage. This was associated with many abiotic stress responsive genes which were induced in fruit peel. In particular 48 Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) and 5 Heat Shock transcription Factors (HSFs) were strongly induced at harvest when scald incidence was low. For "high scald" year, a post-harvest acclimation of 1 week was efficient in reducing scald incidence. Expression profiles of stress related genes were affected by the acclimation treatment and indicate fruit physiological adaptations to cold storage. The identified stressresponsive genes, and in particular HSPs, could be useful indicators of the fruit physiological status to predict the risk of scald occurrence as early as harvest. Scientific RepoRtS |(2020) 10:6180 | https://doi.

Influence of Cold Storage on Pear Physico-Chemical Traits and Antioxidant Systems in Relation to Superficial Scald Development

“…The ROS processing system and its related gene network during post-harvest cold acclimation promotes fruit resistance to oxidative stress and limits superficial scald development in apples [ 51 ].…”

“…APX activity was higher in scald-resistant pears than that in scald-susceptible ones, with different sunlight-exposure [11], and in 'Wujiuxiang' pears treated with 1-MCP with low scald incidence [18]. The ROS processing system and its related gene network during post-harvest cold acclimation promotes fruit resistance to oxidative stress and limits superficial scald development in apples [51].…”

Transcription factor MdLSD1 negatively regulates α‐farnesene biosynthesis in apple‐fruit skin tissue

“…Studies have shown that cytosine methylation-based epigenetic regulation is involved in scald resistance (Karagiannis et al 2018), and a crucial role of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and especially of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) protein in scald progress has been suggested (Karagiannis et al 2020). Previous reports showed that pre-harvest climate and post-harvest acclimation to cold and intermittent warming prevent superficial-scald development in Granny Smith apples (Honass et al 2019;Marc et al 2020). Lastly, recent research indicated that superficial scald was closely related to PCD (Busatto et al 2014;Du et al 2017).…”

“…2019; Marc et al . 2020). Lastly, recent research indicated that superficial scald was closely related to PCD (Busatto et al .…”

A comprehensive insight on the main physiological biochemical and related genes expression changes during the development of superficial scald in “Yali” pear

“…After long-term cold storage, pears appear to develop superficial scald, which is similar to that in apples. Previous investigation have suggested that this phenomenon is related to the metabolism of α-farnesene and especially the accumulation of conjugated trienols (Whitaker et al, 2000, Whitaker, 2007, 2013Lurie and Watkins, 2012;Zhou et al, 2017), and reactive oxygen species (ROS; Marc et al, 2020) as well as phenolic acids and flavonoids (Piretti et al, 1996;Zhi and Dong, 2018;Cebulj et al, 2020). 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) and α-farnesene synthase (AFS) are key synthesis enzymes (Lurie and Watkins, 2012), and the HMGR and AFS genes expression is associated with α-farnesene and scald development (Gapper et al, 2006;Zhou et al, 2017).…”