Abstract
To study the changes in sugar metabolism caused by fungal infection in post-harvest peaches, fruit from two cultivars (‘Baifeng’ and ‘Yulu’) was inoculated with Monilinia fructicola and stored at 10 °C. During disease development, soluble sugar content was monitored, as well as the activities and expression of selected enzymes. Disease progression was accompanied by a decrease in sucrose content and increases in reducing sugars and soluble solids, consistent with higher enzyme activities for acid invertase, neutral invertase and sucrose synthase-cleavage, and lower activities for sucrose synthase-synthesis and sucrose phosphate synthase. Activities of phosphofructokinase, hexokinase, and pyruvate kinase, which are related to hexose metabolism, also increased. These changes stimulate the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas (EMP) pathway. We conclude that the fungal disease in peach fruit accelerates the decomposition of sucrose, thereby providing more glucose as a substrate to the EMP pathway.
Highlights
Soluble sugars including sucrose, glucose and fructose, play an important role in biotic and abiotic stress in plants
Our results show that as disease progresses, the sucrose content in both cultivars decreases rapidly, while reducing sugars increase
This finding agreed with the previous report on peach leaf, which showed that the diseased leaves possessed higher contents of fructose and glucose, but lowered contents of sucrose[9]
Summary
Glucose and fructose, play an important role in biotic and abiotic stress in plants. Abiotic stress such as drought, high temperature, and low temperature can stimulate the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that cause extensive damage to the cell. Many studies concerning soluble sugars have been conducted in fruits during cold storage, which showed that sugar content directly affects post-harvest cold resistance in peaches[4], apricots[5], and loquat fruit[6]. Fungal infection and disease development, as a common biotic stress in plants, can lead to a change in sugar metabolism. Fungal disease is the major factor that causes post-harvest decay and reduces the shelf life[10]
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