"Effect of ethylene and 1-MCP treatments on strawberry fruit ripening".

VILLARREAL NATALIA M.; BUSTAMANTE CLAUDIA A.; CIVELLO PEDRO M.; MARTINEZ GUSTAVO A.

JOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

Lugar: LOndres; Año: 2010 vol. 90 p. 683 - 689

0022-5142

BACKGROUND: Strawberry is a soft fruit, considered as non-climacteric, being auxins the main hormones that regulate theripening process. The role of ethylene in strawberry ripening is currently unclear and several studies have considered a revisionof the possible role of this hormone.RESULTS: Strawberry fruit were harvested at the white stage and treated with ethephon, an ethylene-releasing reagent,or 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), a competitive inhibitor of ethylene action. The effects of the treatments on fruit qualityparameters and on the activity of enzymes related to anthocyanin synthesis and cell wall degradation were evaluated.Some aspects of ripening were accelerated (anthocyanin accumulation, total sugar content and increment of phenylalanineammonia-lyase (PAL; EC 4.3.1.24) and β-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) activities), while others were repressed (chlorophyll levelsand increment of endo-1,4-β-glucanase (EC 3.2.1.4) and β-xylosidase (EC 3.2.1.37) activities) or unchanged (reducing sugarcontent, pH, titratable acidity and α-L-arabinofuranosidase (EC 3.2.1.55) activity) by ethylene. 1-MCP treatment caused theopposite effect. However, its effects were more pronounced, particularly in anthocyanin accumulation, phenolics, PAL andpolygalacturonase (EC 3.2.1.15 and EC 3.2.1.67) activities.CONCLUSION: These observations probably indicate that strawberry produces low levels of ethylene that are sufficient toregulate some ripening aspects.