Carbon metabolism during peach fruit development.

VERÓNICA A. LOMBARDO; JULIA BORSANI; MARTIN A. LAUXMANN; SONIA OSORIO; CLAUDIA BUSTAMANTE; CLAUDIO BUDDE; ALISDAIR R. FERNIE; CARLOS S. ANDREO; MARÍA V. LARA; MARÍA F. DRINCOVICH

Tucumán

Congreso; XLV Annual meeting - Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SAIB); 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)

Peach (Prunus persica) is a climateric fruit whose growth shows a double-sigmoid pattern. To gain knowledge about carbon metabolism during the fruit development, the metabolic pathways controlling the levels of organic acids and sugars were performed by activity measurements and qRT-PCR of transcripts encoding key enzymes. The results show that photosynthates translocated from vegetative organs, such as sucrose and sorbitol, are metabolized during rapid growth periods, mainly in the last stages of fruit development; however a great sorbitol decrease was observed after harvest. Key enzymes involved in sugar metabolism were analysed, which showed significant differences during fruit development. Interestingly, the different transcripts encoding Neutral Invertases displayed distinct pattern of expression. In the case of organic acids, a relatively higher metabolism during both rapid growth periods was observed. Regarding NADP-malic enzyme activity, it increased 8 times at end of growth, in agreement with a high respiratory rate. A significant decrease of total protein at the beginning of development was observed, which might work as an initial mechanism to obtain energy. Finally, the analysis of the metabolomic profile during peach development performed by GC-MS, indicates critical role of certain aminoacids metabolism, along with sugar and organic acid changes.