Abstract
Fresh-cut processing promotes enzymatic browning of fresh fruits and vegetables, which negatively affects the product appearance and impacts their nutrition. We used RNA-sequencing to analyze the transcriptomic changes occurring during the browning of fresh-cut eggplant fruit samples from both browning-sensitive and browning-resistant cultivars to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in browning. A total of 8347 differentially expressed genes were identified, of which 62 genes were from six gene families (i.e., PPO, PAL, POD, CAT, APX, and GST) potentially associated with enzymatic browning. Furthermore, using qRT-PCR, we verified 231 differentially regulated transcription factors in fresh-cut eggplant fruits. The enzyme activities of PPO, POD, PAL, and CAT in ‘36’ were significantly higher than those of ‘F’ fresh-cut for 15 min. Both PPO and POD play a major role in the browning of eggplant pulp and might therefore act synergistically in the browning process. Meanwhile, qPCR results of 18 browning related genes randomly screened in 15 eggplant materials with different browning tolerance showed variant-specific expression of genes. Lastly, gene regulatory networks were constructed to identify the browning-related genes. This work provides a basis for future molecular studies of eggplants, and lays a theoretical foundation for the development of browning-resistant fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.
Highlights
Solanum melongena L., commonly known as eggplant, is an essential vegetable crop
Enzymatic browning is considered as the main reaction that causes browning in post-harvest storage and processing of fruits and vegetables, and has been the focus of postharvest research[5]
The effective data volume of each sample was 5.73–7.04 Gb; 93.61–94.50% of bases had a quality above Q30, and the average GC content was 45.56%
Summary
Solanum melongena L., commonly known as eggplant, is an essential vegetable crop. It is a good source of dietary minerals, vitamins, and anthocyanins, with a high oxygen radical absorbance capacity and low caloric v alue[1]. Enzymatic browning is considered as the main reaction that causes browning in post-harvest storage and processing of fruits and vegetables, and has been the focus of postharvest research[5] It refers to the physiological and biochemical processes in which phenolic substances in plant organs or tissues are oxidized to form quinones under the action of polyphenol oxidase under aerobic c onditions[6]. Enzymatic browning is mostly a result of transforming phenols into o-quinones—catalyzed by polyphenol oxidase (PPO)[12] Other enzymes, such as peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) play a role in inducing or inhibiting the enzymatic browning of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables[13]. It is essential to study these genes that encode key enzymes in eggplant enzymatic browning and phenolic compound formation, which may lay the foundation for better understanding of the browning mechanism in fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. We aimed to (1) conduct transcriptomic profiling of the two types of materials, (2) identify the key differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to enzymatic browning and phenolic compound formation, and (3) provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of eggplant browning
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