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Plant Physiology 74:32-38 (1984)
© 1984 American Society of Plant Biologists

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Articles

Ethylene-Independent and Ethylene-Dependent Biochemical Changes in Ripening Tomatoes

David Jeffery1, Christopher Smith1, Peter Goodenough, Ian Prosser and Donald Grierson

Department of Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom, Long Ashton Research Station, University of Bristol, Long Ashton, Bristol BS18 9AF, United Kingdom, Department of Physiology and Environmental Studies, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom

Fruits of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill cv Sonatine stored in 6% CO2, 6% O2, and 88% N2 for 14 weeks at 12°C, exhibited a temporal separation of certain biochemical events associated with ripening.

The specific activity of two citric acid cycle enzymes, citrate synthase and malate dehydrogenase, fell substantially during the first 2 weeks of storage when changes in organic acid concentration also occurred. During this period, lycopene, polygalacturonase, and ethylene were undetectable.

When fruit were removed from store, ethylene was evolved and polygalacturonase and invertase activity were rapidly initiated as was synthesis of lycopene.

To determine whether the changes in organic acid metabolism were affected by ethylene, fruit was kept at 22°C in either a normal atmosphere or a normal atmosphere supplemented with 27 microliters per liter of ethylene, and it was shown that in both atmospheres similar quantitative changes to those described above occurred in the citric acid cycle enzymes specific activities before any detectable increase in the specific activities of invertase and polygalacturonase. These latter changes, together with pigment changes, occurred between 2 and 3 days earlier in fruit exposed to ethylene, compared with those kept in a normal atmosphere.

1 David Jeffery and Christopher Smith were supported by Science and Engineering Research Council Co-operative awards.






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Copyright © 1984 by the American Society of Plant Biologists