Cell wall metabolism: The Yin and Yang of fruit postharvest biology

BLANCO-ULATE B; CANTU D; VICENTE A; POWELL ALT; LABAVITCH JM

Lemessos

Congreso; Postharvest Unlimited; 2014

ISHS

The physical and biochemical changes that we call ?ripening? are crucial for bringing a fruit into its optimum appeal to seed dispersers (microbes, insects and animals) and human producers and consumers.  Included in the ripening syndrome are changes in cell wall integrity that contribute to the fruit?s conversion from a seed development support system into an attractive package that assists in the survival of flowering, fruit-bearing plants.   However, the fruit's ripening often also is accompanied by increased fruit susceptibility to pathogens that, in turn, leads to an uncoordinated and excessive wall metabolism.   Mis-timed, ripening-associated and pathogen-imposed fruit cell wall metabolism events are among the leading causes of postharvest losses of fruit world-wide. This talk will examine several features of fruit cell wall metabolism that we have examined examined primarily in ripening tomatoes.  This will include discussion of (1) the roles of individual enzymes vs. "teams" of enzymes in ripening-associated wall alteration, (2) the potential impacts of wall-derived oligosaccharides, generated when wall polysaccharides are being modified, on ripening and fruit-pathogen interactions, and (3) the impacts of wall metabolism on the effectiveness of a fruit's pathogen-defenses.  The overall goal is to enhance our understanding of the "biologically managed" coordination between ripening-associated fruit softening and pathogen susceptibility.