The present study was carried out to investigate the influence of food grade coatings on fruit quality and storage life of bell pepper cv. "Yolo Wonder" at 8 ± 1 ∘ C with 90-95% RH for 24 days. Coating treatments were given to bell pepper fruits by dipping in aqueous solutions of gum arabic (6, 9, and 12%), Aloe vera gel (4, 5, and 6%), and cinnamon oil (0.5, 0.75, and 1%). Physicochemical characteristics as well as quality of bell pepper fruits improved in all coating treatments. Results revealed that 12% gum arabic coating exhibited significantly reduced weight loss, membrane leakage, chilling injury, and decay incidence with less increase in pH, total soluble solids, and sugar percentage, whereas appealing fruit color ( * , * , and * ) along with higher values of ascorbic acid (1.84 mg/100 g), titratable acidity (0.19%), and firmness (4 N) was observed in cold storage environment. Our results clearly suggested that coating of bell pepper fruits with 12% gum arabic can maintain postharvest storage quality of bell pepper fruits.

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This study focused on examining the effect of vegetables extract foliar application on storage quality of the grapes grape (Vitis vinifera L. cvs. ‘Perlette’ and ‘King’s Ruby’). The vines were sprayed after fruit set twice at 15 days interval at concentrations of 0, 0.20%, 0.30% and 0.40%. Fruit were harvested and kept under cold-storage at 0.5 ±0.5°C and 90% RH for 28 days. The physicochemical properties of treated and untreated berries were analyzed at 7 days intervals during the cold storage. The results showed that the pre-harvest application of vegetable extracts reduced the weight loss and inhibited the fruit decay. Treated grape also had higher ascorbic acid contents, total phenolics, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl-radical (DPPH) scavenging activity, and higher soluble solid contents, titratable acidity, and reduced sugar:acid ratio. The concentration of 0.30% and cultivar ‘Kings Ruby’ gave the best result as compared to untreated control. In conclusion, pre-harvest vegetables extract application on berries showed higher antioxidant activities in grape berries, and maintained their post-harvest quality. These results indicated that foliar spray of vegetables extract could effectively improve the fruit quality, mainly through the reduction of phenolic content.

Plants integrate and monitor low temperature signals to cope with the continual variations in their environment. Arabidopsis thaliana cold responsive-element binding factor 3 (AtCBF3) plays its role in various cellular activities by modulating multiple genes induced under chilling stress. In this work, AtCBF3 transcription was remarkably induced following chilling stress. AtCBF3-overexpressors namely AtCBF3-Rio Grande, AtCBF3-Moneymaker, and AtCBF3-Roma showed defensible response to various levels of chilling stress, while their isogenic wild type plants indicated hypersensitive response to chilling stress. Detailed photosynthetic studies revealed that AtCBF3 gene has harmonious influences on the expression of a large set of genes by virtue of improved stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, intercellular CO concentration, and photosynthetic rate compared to wild type plants. The AtCBF3 lines limited the water status-mediated hypersensitive response by lowering leaf osmotic potential due to overexpression of AtCBF3 under chilling stress. Biochemical analyses followed by phenotypic studies demonstrated that AtCBF3 plants exhibited membrane stability and lush green appearance by limiting membrane ions leakage and malondialdehyde contents and by accumulating more proline, soluble sugars, chlorophyll contents, carotenoid contents, and antioxidant enzymes relative to wild type plants. Hence, with a several lines of evidence, these findings support that tomato transgenic plants overexpressing Arabidopsis CBF3 show enhanced chilling tolerance.

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The effect of encapsulated calcium carbide (CaC 2 ; ECC at 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg ha -1 ) on pre-harvest production and postharvest performance of potato (Solanum tuberosum) hybrid variety 'Sante' was studied. The ECC was applied twice in the root zone at the time of sowing and 2 weeks after sowing. The data on the parametersnumber of days required for sprouting; sprouting percentage; plant height; number of leaves per plant; leaf area; photosynthesis rate; number of stems per plant; number, size, and weight of tubers; yield; weight loss; shriveling percentage; and sprout percentage were recorded. The results indicated that the number of days required for sprouting of tubers and plant height was reduced significantly by the application of ECC compared with the control. Furthermore, ECC at 60 kg ha -1 significantly reduced the number of days required for sprouting and plant height compared with other treatments. Sprouting percentage, number of leaves per plant, leaf area, photosynthesis rate, and number of stems per plant significantly increased by the application of ECC at 60 and 90 kg ha -1 . Weight, size of tubers, and overall yield of tubers was also increased significantly with the application of ECC at 60 kg ha -1 . In conclusion, the application of CaC 2 at 60 kg ha -1 in the root zone increased vegetative growth, total weight, number of large tubers, and increased total yield (40-50%).

Drought stress is the most prevalent environmental factor limiting wheat productivity globally and demands integration of new plant improvement approaches. Plant tissue culture, being a mutagenic process induces somaclonal variations, which can be manipulated for improving drought tolerance of wheat. An in vitro selection system was employed to regenerate PEG-6000 tolerant callus lines into R 1 somaclones. Comparative morpho-physiologcial responses of R 1 somaclones and explant donor parent cultivar to osmotic stress were studied at seedling and booting stages by inducing artificial drought stress along with the control of unstressed. Both R 1 somaclones and explant donor parent exhibited differential responses to drought stress at both growth stages and the selected somaclones were less affected by drought stress over their donor parent. At seedling stage, the R 1 somaclones exhibited significantly higher root length, shoot length, root to shoot length ratio and relative water contents (RWC) under PEG-6000 induced osmotic stress. Similarly, at booting stage the R 1 somaclones accumulated significantly higher proline, protein, sugar and potassium ion (K +) contents and maintained higher membrane stability index (MSI) than the original cv. GA-2002 under drought stress conditions. The results revealed that the R 1 somaclones of wheat regenerated from PEG-6000 tolerant calli have better drought tolerance than the explant donor parent cv. GA-2002, suggesting that in vitro immature embryo culture can be employed to produce drought tolerant plants of wheat.