CARBON METABOLISM DURING PEACH FRUIT DEVELOPMENT

LOMBARDO, VERONICA; BORSANI, JULIA; LAUXMANN, MARTÍN ALEXANDER; BUSTAMANTE, CLAUDIA; BUDDE, CLAUDIO OLAF; OSORIO ALGAR, SOÑA; FERNIE, ALISDAIR R; ANDREO, CARLOS SANTIAGO; LARA, MARÍA VALERIA; DRINCOVICH, MARÍA FABIANA

San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina

Congreso; XLV Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)

Peach (Prunus persica) is a climateric fruit whose growth shows adouble-sigmoid pattern. To gain knowledge about carbonmetabolism during the fruit development, the metabolic pathwayscontrolling the levels of organic acids and sugars were performedby activity measurements and qRT-PCR of transcripts encoding keyenzymes. The results show that photosynthates translocated fromvegetative organs, such as sucrose and sorbitol, are metabolizedduring rapid growth periods, mainly in the last stages of fruitdevelopment; however a great sorbitol decrease was observed afterharvest. Key enzymes involved in sugar metabolism were analysed,which showed significant differences during fruit development.Interestingly, the different transcripts encoding Neutral Invertasesdisplayed distinct pattern of expression. In the case of organic acids,a relatively higher metabolism during both rapid growth periodswas observed. Regarding NADP-malic enzyme activity, itincreased 8 times at end of growth, in agreement with a highrespiratory rate. A significant decrease of total protein at thebeginning of development was observed, which might work as aninitial mechanism to obtain energy. Finally, the analysis of themetabolomic profile during peach development performed by GCMS,indicates critical role of certain aminoacids metabolism, alongwith sugar and organic acid changes.