(181) 1-Methylcyclopropene Pretreatment of Roma-Type Tomato Ameliorates Effects of Physical Impact

Abstract

Roma tomatoes (`Sunoma') were hand-harvested at the mature-green color stage and treated with 100 μL·L-1 ethylene for 60 h at 20 °C and 90% RH. Tomatoes at breaker ripeness stage (<10% red coloration) were sorted by weight (about 100 g) and half of the fruits were treated with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP; 1 μL·L-1 for 24 h at 22 °C). After 1-MCP treatment, individual fruits were subjected to double impacts over the marked locular surface with force equivalent to a 40-cm height drop using a pendulum impactor. In non-1-MCP treated fruit, impacts increased the maximum respiration rate by 27% (to 39.1 mL·kg-1 per h) and ethylene production by 24% (to 5.5 μL·kg-1 per h). Treatment with 1-MCP decreased relative production of both CO2 (56%) and ethylene (54%) over non-1-MCP treated fruit, while the ripening period (as measured by softening and color development) was extended 2.5 times, to about 8 d. Fruits treated with 1-MCP had increased TTA (about 40%; 0.58% citric acid equivalent), decreased pH (5%), and no difference in soluble solids content (3.7 °Brix); double impacts did not affect these values. Double impacts accelerated the onset of polygalacturonase (PG) activity by about 100% (to 99.8 mol·kg-1 per min*10-5 D-galacturonic acid) at day 6 over non-impacted control fruit. 1-MCP treatment delayed the onset of increased PG activity by 10 d over non-1-MCP treated fruit. Although 1-MCP alleviated the impact-induced increase in PG activity, PG activity recovered to rates similar to those of non-1-MCP treated fruit during the final 4 d of ripening.