762 PB 190 RELATIONSHIP OF PHENYLALANINE AMMONIA LYASE AND ANTHOCYANIN SYNTHESIS IN APPLE

Abstract

Three years of experiments were carried out with both Delicious fruit on trees and fruit skin discs. There were two peaks of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) activity during fruit development. One occurred in the fruitlet stage and the other in the fruit enlargement stage. The first peak was coincident with anthocyanin synthesis in fruitlet but the second peak did not correlate with pigment formation during maturation. In fact, PAL activity decreased gradually during fruit maturation and coloration. Treatment with L-α-aminooxy-B-phenylpropionic acid, a specific PAL inhibitor, decreased PAL activity in fruit and in skin discs 57% and 80%, respectively, but did not change anthocyanin content. Cycloheximide inhibited anthocyanin synthesis by 76% in fruit and 85% in skin discs, but did not significantly inhibit PAL activity. On the other hand, PAL activity was positively correlated with concentrations of simple phenols which were direct products of PAL and precursors for synthesis of lignin, anthocyanin and other flavonoid.