Diversity and relationships in key traits for functional and apparent quality in a collection of eggplant: fruit phenolics content, antioxidant activity, polyphenol oxidase activity, and browning

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work seehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf402429kEggplant (Solanum melongena) varieties with increased levels of phenolics in the fruit present enhanced functional quality, but may display greater fruit flesh browning. We evaluated 18 eggplant accessions for fruit total phenolics content, chlorogenic acid content, DPPH scavenging activity, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, liquid extract browning, and fruit flesh browning. For all the traits we found a high diversity, with differences among accessions of up to 3.36-fold for fruit flesh browning. Variation in total content in phenolics and in chlorogenic acid content accounted only for 18.9% and 6.0% in the variation in fruit flesh browning, and PPO activity was not significantly correlated with fruit flesh browning. Liquid extract browning was highly correlated with chlorogenic acid content (r = 0.852). Principal components analysis (PCA) identified four groups of accessions with different profiles for the traits studied. Results suggest that it is possible to develop new eggplant varieties with improved functional and apparent quality.This project has been funded by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through the grants SP20120681 and PAID-06-11 Nr. 2082, and by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad Grant AGL2012-34213 (jointly funded by FEDER).Plazas Ávila, MDLO.; López Gresa, MP.; Vilanova Navarro, S.; Torres Vidal, C.; Hurtado Ricart, M.; Gramazio, P.; Andújar Pérez, I.... (2013). Diversity and relationships in key traits for functional and apparent quality in a collection of eggplant: fruit phenolics content, antioxidant activity, polyphenol oxidase activity, and browning. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 61(37):8871-8879. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf402429kS88718879613

SHORT-TERM EFFECTS OF BORON, GERMANIUM AND HIGH LIGHT-INTENSITY ON MEMBRANE-PERMEABILITY IN BORON DEFICIENT LEAVES OF SUNFLOWER

WOS: A1995TD52000002The effects of varied boron (B) supply (0.01-50 mu M) and light intensity (100-580 pmol m(-2) s(-1)) on plant growth, leaf symptoms and membrane permeability of leaves were studied in sunflower plants over a 10-day-period of growth in nutrient solution. Membrane permeability was measured by incubating isolated young leaves in aerated distilled water. Additional experiments showed the effect of short-term supply (20 min to 2 h) of B and germanium (Ge) on membrane permeability of B-deficient leaves incubated in distilled water. Low supply of B decreased shoot and root growth and caused brown-purple pigmentation of young leaves, particularly under high light intensities. Leakage of K+ from leaves increased with severity of B deficiency whereas, in B-sufficient leaves, leakage of solutes was low. Also leakage of phenolics, amino acids and sucrose was enhanced by B deficiency. Compared to B-sufficient leaves, the leakage from B-deficient leaves was 35-fold higher for K+, 45-fold higher for sucrose and 7-fold higher for phenolics and amino acids. Increases in solute leakage were marked in leaf areas with brown-purple pigmentation and particularly pronounced by increasing light intensity or by exposure of leaves to continuous light. In severely B-deficient leaves grown under high light intensity, treatment with B and Ge up to 1 000 mu M for 20 min resulted in an immediate decrease in K+ efflux to about the same levels as in B-sufficient leaves. Similar rapid decreases in K+ efflux were also found in B-deficient leaves when exposed to darkness for 16 h or 30 h before the leakage measurement. The results demonstrate a particular role for B in maintaining the integrity of plasma membranes. Boron presumably stabilizes the structure of the plasma membrane by complexing membrane constituents. It also has a protective effect on membrane constituents by complexing phenolics, so that oxidation of phenolics to highly toxic quinones and oxygen free radicals is prevented or limited. In these functions, boron seems to be to a large extent replaceable by germanium