Comparative transcriptomic analysis of cantaloupe melon under cold storage with ozone treatment

Xiaojun Zhang; Ning Tang; Huijie Zhang; Cunkun Chen; Li Li; Chenghu Dong; Yongqiang Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109993

Comparative transcriptomic analysis of cantaloupe melon under cold storage with ozone treatment

Food Res Int. 2021 Feb:140:109993. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109993. Epub 2020 Dec 15.

Authors

Xiaojun Zhang¹, Ning Tang², Huijie Zhang³, Cunkun Chen⁴, Li Li⁵, Chenghu Dong⁴, Yongqiang Cheng⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing Key Laboratory of Functional Food from Plant Resources, Beijing 100083, China.
² College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing Key Laboratory of Functional Food from Plant Resources, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: ningtang@cau.edu.cn.
³ College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China.
⁴ National Engineering Technology Research Center for Preservation of Agriculture Products, Key Laboratory of Storage of Agricultural Products, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Postharvest Physiology and Storage of Agricultural Products, Tianjin 300384, China.
⁵ College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
⁶ College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing Key Laboratory of Functional Food from Plant Resources, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: chengyq@cau.edu.cn.

PMID: 33648227
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109993

Abstract

Ozone treatment was found to delay the postharvest cantaloupe melon decay and improve its intrinsic quality during the cold storage. The transcriptomes of cantaloupe peel and pulp in response to ozone treatment were investigated to reveal the mechanisms using a high-throughput RNA sequencing approach. Results showed that 570 and 313 differentially expressed genes were identified in peel and pulp, respectively. According to these identified genes, the gene ontology and pathway enrichment analysis indicated that the ozone treatment could maintain the firmness of the cantaloupe by changing pectin metabolites and reduction of the ethylene production by regulating relevant genes especially in the peel. The total flavonoid content changes in peel and pulp related to the regulation of phenylalanine ammonia lyase, 4-coumarate-CoA ligase and P450 family genes which further leading to the inhibition of phenylalanine metabolic pathway in peel but promotion of secondary metabolism in pulp. The qRT-PCR results were in accordance with our RNA sequencing results which validated the conclusions. The present study for the first time reveals the mechanism of cantaloupe in response to ozone treatment at a transcriptome level which is of importance for cantaloupe storage.

Keywords: Cantaloupe; Gene ontology; Ozone; RNA sequencing; Transcriptome.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cucumis melo* / genetics
Cucurbitaceae*
Gene Ontology
Ozone*
Transcriptome

Substances

Ozone