Conservation of apple fruit in dynamic and static atmosphere: a comparative metabolomic approach

Conservation of apple fruit in dynamic and static atmosphere: a comparative metabolomic approach

Brizzolara Stefano1, Claudio Santucci2, Leonardo
Tenori2, Angelo Zanella3, Stefan Stürz3, Maarten
Hertog4, Bart Nicolai4, Pietro Tonutti1
[email protected]
1 Istituto di Scienze della Vita, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna,
Pisa
2 Centro di Risonanze Magnetiche, Università di Firenze
3 Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg,
Ora, Bolzano
4 Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgio

The reduction of the oxygen content leads to profound metabolomic alterations of the fruits in storage, which affects the commercial life and the qualitative characteristics of the product. The practice of the controlled atmosphere (CA) is particularly applied for the conservation of apples that can generally benefit from strong reduction of the oxygen concentration as applied in the methods ULO (Ultra Low Oxygen) and DCA (Dynamic Controlled Atmosphere). The reaction to the application of these methods varies according to the cultivar under investigation. Thus, a trial was conducted with the apples of the cv ‘Granny Smith’ and ‘Red Delicious’, stored in static atmosphere (ULO, 0,9 kPa of oxygen) and dynamic atmosphere (DCA, oxygen between 0,3 and 0,55 kPa). The chlorophyll fluorescence was used as a physiological parameter for the dynamic modulation of the oxygen levels. The analytical techniques 1H-NME and GC-MS have been applied to determine the metabolic and aromatic profile of the sample during 6 months of storage. The accumulation of different metabolites (alanine, asparagine, threonine, uridine, GABA, lactate) is selectively influenced by the type of conservation, characterizing the compounds as potential markers of conservation. If looked at the produced VOC (volatile organic compounds), aldehydes and terpenoids resulted to be more abundant in ‘Granny Smith’, while alcohols and esters have reached more elevated values in ‘Red Delicious’: some compounds (propyl acetate, propyl propionate, ethyl tiglate; 5-esene-1-olo, acetate) have been determined only in the latter cultivar. In both varieties, the ethyl esters of the butanoic and esanoic acids resulted associated with the DCA technique. These results can prove useful for the optimization of the execution of storage technologies of apples with minimal oxygen concentrations.

Key Words: DCA-CF, ULO, post-harvest, SPME-GCMS, 1H NMR

Details

Activity type

Participation in scientific conference

Activity work package

Fruit quality; improvement of fruit handling/storage

Activity number

Laimburg-WP4-A40

Activity contact

Dr. Angelo Zanella
Laimburg Research Centre
Laimburg 6 - Pfatten
I-39040 Post Auer (BZ), Italy
[email protected]

Activity partner

Laimburg

Activity country

Italy

Last edit

13-07-2017