Regulation of Postharvest Tomato Fruit Ripening by Endogenous Salicylic Acid

Abstract

Exogenous application of salicylic acid (SA) has been known for delaying ripening in many fruit and vegetables. But the function of endogenous SA in relation to postharvest fruit performance is still unexplored. To understand the role of endogenous SA in postharvest fruit ripening of tomato, 33 tomato lines were examined for their endogenous SA content, membrane stability index (MSI), and shelf life (SL) at turning and red stages of tomato fruit ripening. Six tomato lines having contrasting shelf lives from these categories were subjected further for ethylene (ET) evolution, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase (ACO), polygalacturonase (PG), pectin methyl esterase (PME), antioxidant assays and lipid peroxidation. It was found that high endogenous SA has a direct association with low ET evolution, which leads to the high SL of fruit. High lycopene content was also found to be correlated with high SA. Total antioxidants, PG, and PME decreased and lipid peroxidation increased from turning to red stage of tomato fruit development. Furthermore, these lines were subjected to expression analysis for SA biosynthesis enzymes viz. Solanum lycopersicum Isochorismate Synthase (SlICS) and SlPAL. Real-time PCR data revealed that high SL lines have high SlPAL4 expression and low SL lines have high SlPAL6 expression. Based on the results obtained in this study, it was concluded that endogenous SA regulates ET evolution and SL with the aid of the antioxidative defense system, and SlPAL4 and SlPAL6 genes play significant but opposite roles during fruit ripening.

Effects of Hydrogen Sulfide on Sugar, Organic Acid, Carotenoid, and Polyphenol Level in Tomato Fruit

“…Based on this, approaches have been developed to delay the process of fruit ripening and lessen the nutrition loss, including refrigeration control, atmosphere modification (fumigation with exogenous NO, H 2 S, H 2 O 2 , etc.) and chemical substance treatment such as ethylene inhibitor, methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. In the present study, we applied H 2 S produced by NaHS to explore its function in tomato flavor and nutrient regulation after harvest.…”

Rosmarinic Acid Delays Tomato Fruit Ripening by Regulating Ripening-Associated Traits

“…Exogenous applications of melatonin, sucrose and several plant hormone molecules such as ethylene, abscisic acid, brassinolide, and methyl jasmonate accelerate postharvest tomato fruit ripening [ 9 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. In contrast, nitric oxide, ethanol and other plant hormones like gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and salicylic acid have been demonstrated to delay tomato fruit ripening [ 2 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. In this study, we found that RA, a natural polyphenol derived from the Rosmarinus plants, delayed fruit ripening and extended tomato fruit shelf life with less detrimental impacts on fruit quality.…”

Quality attributes of cantaloupe (Cucumis melo L.) fruit under pre-harvest and post-harvest treatment with methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid

“…0.25 mM MeJA and 4 mM SA significantly preserved firmness of strawberry (66). Salicylic acid treatment decreased pectin methyl esterase resulting in texture firmness retention (67).…”

“…MeJA treatment improved the lycopene accumulation via accelerating carotenoid biosynthetic route gene exhibition (88). SA treatment was beneficial to improve the carotenoid content in mandarin fruit lycopene accumulation was strictly correlated with high salicylic acid concentration (67).…”