Nitric Oxide Extends the Postharvest Life of Water Bamboo Shoots Partly by Maintaining Mitochondrial Structure and Energy Metabolism.

Chunlu Qian,Xiaohua Qi,Zhengjie Ji,Jun Liu,Man Zhang,Chen Lin,Changhai Jin,Jixian Zhang,Juan Kan,Lixia Xiao

doi:10.3390/ijms23031607

Chunlu Qian, Xiaohua Qi + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23031607

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Abstract

Harvested water bamboo shoots can be stored for only a few days before they lose weight and become soft. Nitrogen oxide (NO) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) have previously been used to prolong horticultural crop storage. In the present study, we analyzed the joint effect of these two methods on extending the postharvest quality of water bamboo shoots. Water bamboo shoots were treated with (1) 30 μL L−1 NO, (2) MAP, and (3) a combination of NO and MAP. The NO treatment delayed the softness and weight loss through maintaining the integrity of the mitochondrial ultrastructure and enhancing the ATP level by activating the expressions and activities of succinic dehydrogenase, malic acid dehydrogenase, and cytochrome oxidase. MAP improved the effect of NO on the mitochondrial energy metabolism. These results indicate that NO and MAP treatments are effective at suppressing the quality deterioration of water bamboo shoots, MAP improves the effect of NO in extending postharvest life, and NO may be the main effective factor in the combination of NO and MAP.

Highlights

The control and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)-treated shoots became slightly green while the Nitrogen oxide (NO) and
We showed that the combination of NO and MAP improved the shoot weight loss and firmness compared to individual treatments of NO and MAP (Figure 2a,b)
The NO-treated shoots possessed higher expression levels of ZlH+ -ATPase, ZlCCO than the MAP-treated shoots. These results indicated that NO and MAP could increase the expression level of genes involved in the TCA cycle and mitochondrial electron transport, which could guarantee adequate energy supply to plant cells during cold storage, and the NO + MAP-treated shoots showed the most healthy and sufficient energy supply chain at a transcriptional level