Articles
Sugar homeostasis in Japanese plum fruits with contrasting ripening behavior
Article number
1260_1
Pages
1 – 8
Language
English
Abstract
Japanese plums, the most variable group found amongst tree species, comprise most of the fresh-market plums commercialized worldwide.
We characterized and compared two Japanese plum cultivars: Santa Rosa (SR) and its bud-sport mutant Sweet Miriam (SM). Although these cultivars share the same genetic background, they exhibit contrasting ripening behavior (SR, climacteric; SM, non-climacteric). In addition to differences in their ripening patterns and in their physicochemical properties, they present differences in sugar composition, conferring SM fruits with unusual quality properties (higher sugar alcohol metabolism-related sugars). The main objective of this research was to identify differences in sugar homeostasis in climacteric SR and non-climacteric SM fruit ripening behaviors by comparing fruits and leaves throughout different developmental stages on the tree.
Metabolomic analyses were employed to quantify specific sugars in early development and ripening-related stages, including S2 (pit hardening; flesh firmness of ~70 N), S3/S4 (mature stage; flesh firmness of ~40 N), S4-I (commercial harvest; ~30 N), and S4-II (fully-ripe; flesh firmness ~20 N). Our results show that in both fruits and leaves, higher levels of sucrose, fructose, glucose, and galactose characterized SR, while SM showed increased sorbitol, galactinol, raffinose, inositol, and trehalose.
Furthermore, throughout the different developmental stages both cultivars showed a decrease in the contents of sucrose, sorbitol, glucose, and fructose in leaves paralleled by an increase in fruits indicating translocation from leaves to fruits.
This experimental system provides a unique tool to study metabolic pathways underlying contrasting ripening behavior.
It also facilitates understanding of the mechanisms that allow fruits to switch to a sorbitol-based metabolism, which could have an important impact since sorbitol is a healthier natural sweetener than sucrose.
We characterized and compared two Japanese plum cultivars: Santa Rosa (SR) and its bud-sport mutant Sweet Miriam (SM). Although these cultivars share the same genetic background, they exhibit contrasting ripening behavior (SR, climacteric; SM, non-climacteric). In addition to differences in their ripening patterns and in their physicochemical properties, they present differences in sugar composition, conferring SM fruits with unusual quality properties (higher sugar alcohol metabolism-related sugars). The main objective of this research was to identify differences in sugar homeostasis in climacteric SR and non-climacteric SM fruit ripening behaviors by comparing fruits and leaves throughout different developmental stages on the tree.
Metabolomic analyses were employed to quantify specific sugars in early development and ripening-related stages, including S2 (pit hardening; flesh firmness of ~70 N), S3/S4 (mature stage; flesh firmness of ~40 N), S4-I (commercial harvest; ~30 N), and S4-II (fully-ripe; flesh firmness ~20 N). Our results show that in both fruits and leaves, higher levels of sucrose, fructose, glucose, and galactose characterized SR, while SM showed increased sorbitol, galactinol, raffinose, inositol, and trehalose.
Furthermore, throughout the different developmental stages both cultivars showed a decrease in the contents of sucrose, sorbitol, glucose, and fructose in leaves paralleled by an increase in fruits indicating translocation from leaves to fruits.
This experimental system provides a unique tool to study metabolic pathways underlying contrasting ripening behavior.
It also facilitates understanding of the mechanisms that allow fruits to switch to a sorbitol-based metabolism, which could have an important impact since sorbitol is a healthier natural sweetener than sucrose.
Authors
M. Farcuh, R.M. Rivero, E. Blumwald
Keywords
Prunus salicina, bud-sport mutant, ethylene
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