Abstract
Short vase life, capitulum wilting, neck bending, and postharvest chilling injury (CI) are major disorders have negative impact on quality and marketing of gerbera cut flowers. Low storage temperatures prolonging the vase life, but on the other hand leads serious CI which decreases the quality and consumer preferences. Spermine (SPER) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were identified as anti-aging factors delay the senescence and elevate the chilling tolerance in many species. Greenhouse-grown gerbera cv. ‘Stanza’ sprayed with 2 mM SPER and 1 mM GABA twice (2 T) or thrice (3 T). Cut flowers were stored at 1.5 °C and 8 °C postharvest to study the effects of GABA and SPER on senescence and CI. Vase life, CI and quality of cut flowers were improved by GABA and SPER treatments. No CI was observed in GABA-treated flowers at 1.5 °C; while, flowers sprayed with water showed severe CI. GABA treatments efficiently prolonged the vase life for 6–7 days more than the control (15 days). GABA and SPER increased the fresh weight, solution uptake, protein and proline contents, catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase activities, while decreased the electrolyte leakage, H2O2, and malondialdehyde contents, polyphenol oxidase, lipoxygenase, and phospholipase D activities. GABA and SPER significantly prolonged the vase life and prevented degradation of proteins and chilling damage and increased capacity of detoxifying and scavenging of H2O2 and reactive oxygen species (ROS), led to alleviate the negative consequences of the senescence and CI.
Highlights
Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii), a plant with tropical origin belonging to the Asteraceae family is one of the top 10 most beautiful cut flowers in the world due to its colorful shiny ray florets, their variable shapes and colors, high flower-stem yield and short harvest intervals[1]
GABA accumulates in plant cells by the GABA-shunt pathway which is regulated by three key enzymes including glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), GABA transaminase (GABA-T), and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH)[22]
The data indicate the importance of maintaining the optimal cold temperatures during storage and commercial handling procedure of gerbera cut flowers to obtain maximum vase life and quality
Summary
Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii), a plant with tropical origin belonging to the Asteraceae family is one of the top 10 most beautiful cut flowers in the world due to its colorful shiny ray florets, their variable shapes and colors, high flower-stem yield and short harvest intervals[1]. Putrescine (with two amino groups), spermidine (with three amino groups) and SPER (with four amino groups) are among the most well-known PAs with anti-aging properties, which increase the cellular antioxidant capacity and reduce the ethylene p roduction[9,12,13]. PAs showed positive effects on postharvest quality and vase life of cut roses18, lisianthus[19] and anthurium cut flowers[20] due to their impacts on ROS and antioxidant capacity. The vase life and quality of gerbera cut flowers could improve under low storage temperature, as a naturally tropical plant, gerbera is sensitive to CI. Despite the fact that PAs and GABA have been implicated in various important developmental and adaptive processes, their effects on chilling damage and senescence of cut gerbera flowers was not clearly investigated under postharvest cold storage condition. The results can be applied by growers, wholesalers and consumers for better postharvest performance and quality improvement during postharvest storage and handling of cut flowers under cold storage
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