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Carbon Dioxide Injury in ‘Honeycrisp' Apple: Dose Response and Induction of Fermentative Volatiles

Thursday, August 6, 2015: 11:00 AM
Maurepas (Sheraton Hotel New Orleans)
Diep Tran Thi Ngoc , Michigan State University, East Lansing
Randolph Beaudry , Michigan State University, East Lansing
Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage at low temperature has been widely used to successfully extend the marketing period of many apple [Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill. var. domestica (Borkh.) Mansf.] cultivars. However ‘Honeycrisp’ fruit are very sensitive to injury by CA storage, developing brown lesions and lens-shaped cavities in the cortex in response to elevated CO2 and, to a lesser extent, to low O2. To investigate the effect of CA conditions on injury of ‘Honeycrisp’, fruit were subjected CO2 levels of 0, 1.5, 3, 10, and 20 kPa in combination with 3 kPa O2 during storage at 3 °C. In addition, fruit were treated with diphenylamine (DPA) drench (1000 µL·L-1, 30 s) to control CO2 injury and held in two different CA conditions (3 kPa CO2 + 3 kPa O2; 10 kPa CO2 +3 kPa O2). Fruit were assessed on day 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 56, 70, 84, 112, 140, and 168 of storage for incidence and severity of CA injury, bitter pit, and decay and fermentative volatile emissions (acetaldehyde, ethanol, and ethyl acetate) were measured on tissue samples removed from the cortex. None of the CA conditions affected incidence of bitter pit or decay. CA injury increased with increasing CO2 level and with increasing storage duration for the first 50 days of storage. Fruit exposed to 10 and 20 kPa CO2 had somewhat elevated levels of fermentative volatiles relative to fruit stored at lower levels of CO2. DPA completely suppressed CA injury at 3 and 10 kPa CO2. Interestingly, there were approximately the same levels of fermentative volatiles under both CA regimes. It is suggested that fermentative metabolism is influenced by CA conditions, but that the volatiles may not be indicative of CA-related injury per se. The role of DPA in suppressing CA-related injury needs to be investigated.
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