Proteomic Analysis of Strawberry Fruits Exposed to Essential Oils
Abstract
The fully ripened and perishable strawberry fruits start to rot and grow fungus within a week after harvest even when stored in chilled condition. Essential oil coating was reported to have the function to protect stored fruits against fungal spoilage, decaying, and deterioration of stored fruits, thus extending the shelf life and quality. This study aims to identify strawberry proteins responsive to surface treatments to delay or prevent fruit rot caused by fungal infection. Four strawberry varieties including ‘Albion’, ‘Allstar’, ‘Jewel’, and ‘Sweet Charlie’, were packaged inside a separate air-tight container and exposed to five essential oils: thymol, cinnamon oil, eugenol, clove bud oil, and non-enal (30ppm), by placing them in the cotton ball. Fungicide Switch (30ppm) and no treatment were used as positive and negative controls respectively. Proteins were precipitated and tryptic-digested proteins were labeled using the 16-Plex tandem mass tag (TMT) kit. The proteomes were identified using real-time search selection and MS3 quantification. 4304 proteins were identified and proteins showing significant differences in relative protein abundance between treated and control samples were taken as differentially abundant proteins (DAPs); these DAPs were used to identify the biological processes associated with fruit rot, and cell wall degradation and softening. Protein-protein association networks were constructed for proteins involved in cell wall modification and antibiotic activities, and cell wall degrading proteins were identified. This research has provided novel information for understanding strawberry ripening and fruit softening processes, and the use of essential oils in extending the shelf life of perishable fruits.
Subject Area
Plant sciences|Biochemistry|Agriculture|Horticulture
Recommended Citation
Kajol Pradhan,
"Proteomic Analysis of Strawberry Fruits Exposed to Essential Oils"
(2023).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI30570342.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI30570342