Short‐term hypobaric treatment enhances chilling tolerance in peaches

Abstract

Peach fruit quickly shows symptoms of chilling injury (CI) during shelf life after storage under inadequate temperatures. We found that short-term hypobaric treatment (SHT) was effective in reducing the CI index to maintain the quality of peaches (Prunus persica L. Batsch cv. Yingshuanghong) during shelf life after cold storage. The respiration rate of peaches was inhibited, and the climacteric peak was delayed during storage after being treated at 0.45 atm pressures for 4 hr at 20°C. Meanwhile, SHT fruits maintained higher disaccharide concentrations and lower monosaccharide concentrations. SHT fruits also exhibited higher antioxidant enzyme activity that likely reduced the production of ROS. In addition, SHT suppressed membrane oxidation effectively by inhibiting phospholipase D (PLD) and lipoxygenase (LOX) activity to prevent malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation. These results indicated that SHT performed effectively to alleviate CI in peaches by modulating respiration and sugars metabolism, oxidative stress, and membrane oxidation. Practical applications Unlike hypobaric storage for long periods of time, short-term hypobaric treatment (SHT) is a short-term application of subatmospheric pressure. This paper suggests that SHT is an effective method to alleviate CI and to maintain quality of peaches after cold storage. This work will help to expand chilling-sensitive fruit storage life to satisfy market and consumer demands.