Interactions between the Timing of the Application of Hypoxia and Rate of Sugar Accumulation and Activities of Invertase, Sucrose Synthase, and Sucrose Phosphate Synthase

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Previous research has shown that subjecting bananas to low O2 treatment during the climacteric rise decreases the rate of sugar accumulation but the fruits eventually ripen. In the present study we applied low O2 in fruits whose ripening had been initiated by exogenous C2H4 and in preclimacteric ones. In preclimacteric fruits low O2 suppressed the climacteric rise during the duration of the experiment (20 days). It completely inhibited the increase in sugars, invertase and sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) activities while there was a sharp increase in sucrose synthase (SS). In control fruits the increase in sugar content coincides with a sharp increase in invertase, and SPS and a decline in SS. Hypoxia inhibited the increase in invertase and SPS while it induced an increase in SS. Nevertheless, the activities of invertase and SPS in the climacteric hypoxic fruits was higher than in hypoxic preclimacteric ones. The results, thus, indicate that the imposition of low O2 at the preclimacteric stage is much more efficient in delaying banana ripening than when it is applied after the initiation of ripening.