Biomechanics of isolated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit cuticles during ripening: the role of flavonoids
Eva Domínguez A D , Laura España B D , Gloria López-Casado B C , Jesús Cuartero A and Antonio Heredia B EA Estación Experimental ‘La Mayora’ (CSIC) Algarrobo-Costa, E-29760 Málaga, Spain.
B Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica, Universidad de Málaga, E-29071 Málaga, Spain.
C Present address: Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
D These authors contributed equally to this work.
E Corresponding author. Email: heredia@uma.es
Functional Plant Biology 36(7) 613-620 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09039
Submitted: 17 February 2009 Accepted: 11 May 2009 Published: 2 July 2009
Abstract
Flavonoids accumulate in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) fruit cuticles during ripening. Their quantitative contribution to the biomechanical properties of the cuticle is studied in six tomato genotypes which show presence or absence of these compounds at the red ripe stage of fruit development. Tomato cuticles with flavonoids at red ripe showed a dramatic increase of these compounds between mature green and red ripe stages together with a significant increase in the elastic modulus. On the other hand, cuticles without flavonoids displayed a similar biomechanical behaviour at mature green and red ripe stages. The absence of flavonoids could also be related with a predominance of the viscoelastic performance of the cuticle. Thus, the increase of phenolics in tomato fruit cuticles during ripening is correlated with a more rigid cutin network that reinforces the mechanical function of polysaccharides which tend to diminish at this stage due to cell wall disassembly. A role of phenolics as biomechanical modulators of the cuticle behaviour is proposed.
Additional keywords: biomechanical stiffness, biomechanics, cuticle, cutin, flavonoids, phenolics, Solanum lycopersicum, tomato fruit ripening.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Ana Rico and Toñi Núñez for technical assistance. This work has been partially supported by grant AGL2006–12494 from Plan Nacional de I+D, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain, Fundación Cajamar and Rijk Zwaan Iberica (Almería, Spain).
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