Anthocyanins double the shelf life of tomatoes by delaying over-ripening and reducing susceptibility to grey mould

[EN] Shelf life is an important quality trait for many fruit, including tomatoes. We report that enrichment of anthocyanin, a natural pigment, in tomatoes can significantly extend shelf life. Processes late in ripening are suppressed by anthocyanin accumulation, and susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea, one of the most important postharvest pathogens, is reduced in purple tomato fruit. We show that reduced susceptibility to B. cinerea is dependent specifically on the accumulation of anthocyanins, which alter the spreading of the ROS burst during infection. The increased antioxidant capacity of purple fruit likely slows the processes of overripening. Enhancing the levels of natural antioxidants in tomato provides a novel strategy for extending shelf life by genetic engineering or conventional breeding.E.B. and C.M. were supported by the European Union FP6 FLORA project (FOOD-CT-01730), and Y.Z., E.B., and C.M. are supported by the European Union FP7 ATHENA collaborative project (grant agreement 245121). Y.Z. is also supported by a Rotation Studentship from the John Innes Foundation. C.M. and E.B. were supported by the core strategic grant of the Biological and Biotechnological Science Research Council (BBSRC) to the John Innes Centre and are currently supported by the Institute Strategic Program Understanding and Exploiting Plant and Microbial Secondary Metabolism (BB/J004596/1) from the BBSRC. E.B. was supported by a short-term EMBO fellowship for undertaking part of the research reported in this paper. H.-J.S. was supported by grant BB/G042960/1 from the BBSRC and the John Innes Foundation, and A.G. and D.O. are supported by the Fundacion Genoma (Calitom project) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (project BIO2010-15384). This work benefited from the networking activities within the European-funded COST ACTION FA1106 QualityFruit. We thank Andrew Davis for photography. C.M. and J.D.G.J. are Directors of Norfolk Plant Sciences, a company bringing biotechnological improvements in crops to market.Zhang, Y.; Butelli, E.; De Stefano, R.; Schoonbeek, H.; Magusin, A.; Pagliarani, C.; Wellner, N.... (2013). Anthocyanins double the shelf life of tomatoes by delaying over-ripening and reducing susceptibility to grey mould. Current Biology. 23(12):1094-1100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.072S10941100231