Abscisic acid alleviates chilling injury in cold-stored peach fruit by regulating ethylene and hydrogen peroxide metabolism

Jixing Tang; Yaoyao Zhao; Shuning Qi; Qi Dai; Qiong Lin; Yuquan Duan

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.987573

Abscisic acid alleviates chilling injury in cold-stored peach fruit by regulating ethylene and hydrogen peroxide metabolism

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Sep 6:13:987573. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.987573. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jixing Tang¹, Yaoyao Zhao¹, Shuning Qi¹, Qi Dai^{1

2}, Qiong Lin¹, Yuquan Duan¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Agro-products Quality and Safety Control in Storage and Transport Process, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Department of Food Science, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China.

Abstract

Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is susceptible to chilling injury under improper low-temperature storage (2°C-5°C). Previous research has shown that abscisic acid (ABA) alleviates chilling injury in fruits and vegetables, but the potential mechanism is still unclear. To explore its effectiveness and potential mechanism in alleviating chilling injury during cold storage, exogenous ABA was applied to peach fruit by immersion in 100 μmol L^-1 solutions for 10 min. In our experiment, ABA alleviated chilling injury by reducing hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) content and ethylene production. In addition, ABA inhibited the expression of the ethylene synthesis-related genes PpACO1 and PpEIN2. At the same time, ABA activated the antioxidant enzymatic pathway and the ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle, the transcript abundance encoding genes related to antioxidant enzyme activities also changed correspondingly. The results suggested that ABA alleviated chilling injury by scavenging excessive H₂O₂ by promoting antioxidant enzymes and the AsA-GSH pathway.

Keywords: Prunuspersica; ascorbate-glutathione cycle; chilling injury; ethylene metabolism; hydrogen peroxide.