Carbon dioxide treatment modulates phosphatidic acid signaling and stress response to improve chilling tolerance and postharvest quality in paprika

Me-Hea Park; Kang-Mo Ku; Kyung-Ran Do; Hyang Lan Eum; Jae Han Cho; Pue Hee Park; Siva Kumar Malka

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1287997

Carbon dioxide treatment modulates phosphatidic acid signaling and stress response to improve chilling tolerance and postharvest quality in paprika

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Nov 16:14:1287997. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1287997. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Me-Hea Park¹, Kang-Mo Ku², Kyung-Ran Do³, Hyang Lan Eum¹, Jae Han Cho¹, Pue Hee Park¹, Siva Kumar Malka¹

Affiliations

¹ Postharvest Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Wanju, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
³ Planning and Coordination Division, National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, Wanju, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Introduction: Paprika (Capsicum annuum L.) is prone to chilling injury (CI) during low-temperature storage. Although recent findings suggest that CO₂ treatment may protect against CI, the effects of short-term CO₂ treatment on CI and the underlying molecular mechanisms in paprika remain unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of short-term CO₂ treatment on CI and postharvest quality in paprika during storage at cold storage and retail condition at physio-biochemical-molecular level.

Methods: Paprika was treated with 20 and 30% CO₂ for 3 h and stored at 4°C for 14 days, followed by additional storage for 2 days at 20°C (retail condition). Fruit quality parameters, including weight loss, firmness, color, and pitting were assessed, and the molecular mechanism of the treatment was elucidated using transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses.

Results: Short-term treatment with 20 and 30% CO₂ effectively maintained paprika quality during cold storage and retailer conditions, with reduced surface pitting, a common symptom of CI. Additionally, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed that 20% CO₂ treatment induced genes associated with biosynthesis of phosphatidic acid (PA), diacylglycerol, triacylglycerol, and stress response, metabolites associated with phasphatidyl inositol signaling, inositol phosphate metabolism, and starch and sucrose metabolism.

Conclusion: CO₂ treatment activates PA biosynthesis through PLD and PLC-DGK pathways, and induces inositol phosphate, starch, and sucrose metabolism, thereby regulating chilling stress response via the ICE-CBF pathway. These findings suggest that short-term CO₂ treatment enhances resistance to cold-induced injury and preserves postharvest quality in non-climacteric fruits, such as paprika, through activation of PA signaling, which improves membrane stability during cold storage and distribution.

Keywords: Capsicum annum L.; DREB; chilling injury; lipid metabolism; membrane integrity; phosphatidic acid; postharvest quality; stress response.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture, Science, and Technology (Project No. PJ01601102) in the Rural Development Administration of the Republic of Korea.