Abstract
The vase life of cut flowers is largely affected by post-harvest water loss. Cuticular wax is the primary barrier to uncontrolled water loss for aerial plant organs. Studies on leaf cuticular transpiration have been widely conducted; however, little is known about cuticular transpiration in flowers. Here, the cuticular transpiration rate and wax composition of three lily cultivars were determined. The minimum water conductance of tepal cuticles was higher at the green bud than open flower stage. Lily cuticular transpiration exhibited cultivar- and organ-specific differences, where transpiration from the tepals was higher than leaves and was higher in the ‘Huang Tianba’ than ‘Tiber’ cultivar. The overall wax coverage of the tepals was higher compared to that of the leaves. Very-long-chain aliphatics were the main wax constituents and were dominated by n-alkanes with carbon (C) chain lengths of C27 and C29, and C29 and C31 in the tepal and leaf waxes, respectively. Primary alcohols and fatty acids as well as small amounts of alkyl esters, ketones, and branched or unsaturated n-alkanes were also detected in both tepal and leaf waxes, depending on the cultivar and organ. In addition, the chain-length distributions were similar between compound classes within cultivars, whereas the predominant C-chain lengths were substantially different between organs. This suggests that the less effective transpiration barrier provided by the tepal waxes may result from the shorter C-chain aliphatics in the tepal cuticle, compared to those in the leaf cuticle. These findings provide further insights to support the exploration of potential techniques for extending the shelf life of cut flowers based on cuticular transpiration barrier properties.
Highlights
The surfaces of aerial plant organs are covered by cuticle, and its primary function is to prevent uncontrolled water loss (Riederer and Schreiber, 2001)
As the primary barrier to non-stomatal transpiration is determined by the wax pattern in the cuticle (Riederer and Schreiber, 2001), the composition of the wax on the leaves and tepals at the green bud and open flower stages was analyzed
The transpiration of cut flowers has been recently cared by researchers on different species and flower organs
Summary
The surfaces of aerial plant organs are covered by cuticle, and its primary function is to prevent uncontrolled water loss (Riederer and Schreiber, 2001). It is well known that the cuticular waxes, rather than the cutin matrix, are the barrier to non-stomatal water loss (Riederer and Schreiber, 1995; Jetter and Riederer, 2016). Previous studies have focused on how the barrier properties of leaf or fruit cuticles affect water loss or chemical substrates (Riederer and Schreiber, 2001; Jetter and Riederer, 2016), whereas few studies have been conducted on the barrier properties of flower cuticles. Previous studies reported that cuticular transpiration in fruit cuticular membranes was higher than that of leaf cuticles. A comparative study on cuticular wax chemical differences between flowers and other organs has been conducted (Guo and Jetter, 2017). More information about the chemical composition of petal cuticles and its contribution to barrier properties during petal development are still awaiting to be explored
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