Ripening Associated Red Color Development Masks Sunburn Browning in Apple Peel

Abstract

Red color development toward harvest may conceal superficial blemishes such as sunburn browning in apple peel. Masking of sunburn may result in the underestimation of sunburn incidence in full red and blushed cultivars and may result in inaccurate assessments of sunburn susceptibility of various cultivars. However, anthocyanin accumulation may potentially also increase sunburn by decreasing the albedo and thereby increasing the fruit surface temperature (FST). Conversely, it has been proposed that anthocyanins may protect peel against photothermal stress. We assessed the effect of anthocyanin accumulation on the visible sunburn incidence in two trials. In the first trial, hue angle, blush coverage, sunburn incidence, and sunburn severity were assessed on fully exposed apples of the green cultivars, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious, as well as the blushed cultivars, Royal Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, and Cripps' Pink, and the full red cultivar Topred, a month before harvest and again at harvest. Increases in sunburn toward harvest were greater in green than in red and blushed cultivars. Accumulation of anthocyanins seemed to decrease the conspicuousness of sunburn browning, which is a superficial form of sunburn while sunburn necrosis, which manifests as sunken black spots, was not masked by anthocyanins. In the second trial, ‘Granny Smith’, ‘Fuji’, and ‘Cripps’ Pink’ apples with moderate sunburn browning, sunburn necrosis, or no sunburn were tagged 1 month before the expected harvest date. Sunburn browning was apparent and significantly increased in severity in ‘Granny Smith’ while the severity of visible sunburn browning symptoms decreased in ‘Fuji’. Sunburn severity increased at the same level in the control and sunburn browning ‘Cripps’ Pink’ fruit. Measurement of maximal photochemical efficiency of the originally undamaged apples and the sunburn browning treatment indicated comparable damage levels in the peel of the sunburn browning treatment in all three cultivars. No masking of sunburn necrosis occurred. Our data thus provide clear evidence that anthocyanin accumulation masks sunburn browning in blushed and red cultivars, but does not seem to increase the susceptibility or protect these cultivars from sunburn damage. The incidence of sunburn browning is likely to be underestimated in red and blushed cultivars, with compounding effects on comparative studies of sunburn susceptibility between cultivars and sunburn physiology.