Fatty acid desaturation in chilling-sensitive and chilling-tolerant mandarin fruit during postharvest cold storage

Fatty acid (FA) desaturation is a critical step in the response of plant tissues to low temperature stress. To unveil the role of FA desaturation in the natural tolerance or susceptibility of mandarin fruit to chilling injury (CI) during postharvest cold storage, we have investigated changes in FA c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Lozano Omeñaca, Aurora, Rodrigo, María Jesús, Hornero-Méndez, Dámaso, Zacarías, Lorenzo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/414234
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/414234
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/105024239539
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Chilling injury
Cold storage
Desaturation
Fatty acids
Mandarin
Descripción
Sumario:Fatty acid (FA) desaturation is a critical step in the response of plant tissues to low temperature stress. To unveil the role of FA desaturation in the natural tolerance or susceptibility of mandarin fruit to chilling injury (CI) during postharvest cold storage, we have investigated changes in FA content and composition, and in expression of ten genes involved in different steps of FA desaturation in the flavedo of the CI-sensitive Fortune mandarin and the CI-tolerant Nadorcott during 8 weeks of storage at 2 ºC. Transcriptomic analysis of the genes involved in key steps of FA desaturation revealed that eight of those were more highly expressed in the CI-sensitive mandarin than in the tolerant at harvest, and the expression of most of them declined during storage at 2 ºC. Content of total FA, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid, as well as the ratio of unsaturated/saturated FA (UFA/SFA), were also markedly higher in Fortune fruit at harvest than in Nadorcott, and remained superior during cold storage. Together, our results suggest that differences in FA metabolism between CI-sensitive and CI-tolerant mandarin are mainly determined by preharvest factors, probably as a response of sensitive genotypes to environmental conditions, that further modulate the changes in FA content, the unsaturation ratio and the expression of FA desaturase genes during subsequent postharvest storage at 2 ºC.