Interactions between the Amount and Molecular Forms of Polygalacturonase, Calcium, and Firmness in Tomato Fruit

Abstract

Abstract A range of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cultivars was examined for changes during ripening in firmness, endopolygalacturonase (PG) activity and the molecular forms of polygalacturonase, Ca concentration, and the extractability of the Ca. Firm cultivars were firmer than the soft cultivars throughout ripening, and generally they contained less PG activity at each stage examined. In all cultivars, PG was predominately or entirely in the high molecular weight form (PG1) early in ripening, with the PG2 forms being increasingly prominent as ripening progressed. Differences in firmness were established while PG1 was the predominant PG. Uronic acid polymers in isolated cell walls were degraded rapidly by endogenous PG when citrate was present to complex Ca. In the presence of sufficient citrate, cell wall uronic acids of a firm and soft cultivar were equally susceptible to hydrolysis, suggesting that differences in the digestion of the walls by PG were dependent upon differences in Ca content or distribution. However, neither total, water, nor saline-extractable Ca showed consistent correlations with fruit firmness, and they also showed no progressive change during ripening.