Contents SummaryPlants are subject to a wide range of abiotic stresses, and their cuticular wax layer provides a protective barrier, which consists predominantly of long-chain hydrocarbon compounds, including alkanes, primary alcohols, aldehydes, secondary alcohols, ketones, esters and other derived compounds. This article discusses current knowledge relating to the effects of stress on cuticular waxes and the ways in which the wax provides protection against the deleterious effects of light, temperature, osmotic stress, physical damage, altitude and pollution. Topics covered here include biosynthesis, morphology, composition and function of cuticular waxes in relation to the effects of stress, and some recent findings concerning the effects of stress on regulation of wax biosynthesis are described.New Phytologist (2006) 171: 469-499

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Tubers of six commercially available potato cultivars were placed in bright light (140 p o l -' m-2), approximately equivalent to dull daylight, for a continuous period of up to seven days. The tubers were sampled at intervals, scored for degree of greening, freeze-dried and subsequently assessed for glycoalkaloid and chlorophyll content. There were significant differences between the cultivars in their rates of greening and increase in glycoalkaloid content. There was an apparent relationship between the two characters. Increases in the individual glycoalkaloids a-chaconine and a-solanine were also assessed. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for the potato industry.

The total ascorbate content of potato tubers from 33 Solanum tuberosum genotypes grown at three geographically diverse sites in Europe in each of two years was determined immediately postharvest and after approximately 4 months of storage at 4 degrees C. Statistically significant differences in total ascorbate concentration were observed between genotypes both at harvest and after storage. In all genotypes, the levels of ascorbate decreased during storage. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for diet and health as well as in terms of breeding for improved vitamin C content in potatoes.

Metabolic profiling methods are not ideally suited to the simultaneous analysis of all metabolite classes within a biological sample and must be optimized for maximum applicability. Several factors related to the optimization, validation and limitations of a GC-MS-based metabolic profiling method for potato were examined. A key step is conversion of reducing sugars to methyloximes, and optimum reaction conditions were 50°C for 4 h. Shorter times or lower temperatures resulted in incomplete oximation whereas longer times and higher temperatures caused hydrolysis of sucrose, the major tuber dissacharide. Metabolite concentration gradients were observed in tuber sections. Glucose, fructose, alanine, methionine, threonine and tyrosine were more concentrated in the interior, whereas asparagine, putrescine, and caffeic and chlorogenic acids were higher in the skin and citrate was concentrated at the tuberÕs bud end. These results impact upon choice of sampling strategy, consequently the use of freeze-dried (FD) material from a sampling protocol developed to avoid gradient-induced bias was examined. Using FD material, the method was highly linear and there was little qualitative or quantitative difference in the metabolite composition between fresh and FD material. The short-and long-term repeatability of the method was studied, and the use of reference materials to monitor and to improve data quality is discussed. Ascorbate is an important tuber metabolite that is readily measured by targeted approaches, but can be a problem in metabolic profiling. It was shown for standards and FD potato that ascorbate was largely degraded during oximation, although some survived in FD material.

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In Brassica crops differences in susceptibility to root fly attack can be largely attributed to antixenotic resistance. Plants of four genotypes (two swedes and two kales) with widely differing resistance in field trials, were compared in laboratory choice assays for their susceptibility to oviposition by the root flies Delia radicum (L.) and D. floralis (Fallen) (Diptera, Anthomyiidae). For both species the preference among the genotypes corresponded to the susceptibility of the genotypes in the field. The preference ranking in response to surrogate leaves treated with methanolic surface extracts of the four genotypes was identical to the preference among potted plants, demonstrating that chemical factors on the leaf surface mediate host preference for oviposition in these species. For both species of fly, glucosinolates are major oviposition stimulants and for D. radicum an additional, non‐glucosinolate oviposition stimulant, presently called CIF, is known. We describe a procedure for chromatographic separation of glucosinolates from CIF in leaf surface extracts. In oviposition‐choice assays with D. radicum, the CIF‐fractions of the two swede genotypes applied to surrogate leaves received a 1.8 and 4.6 times higher proportion of eggs than the respective glucosinolate‐fractions, confirming the major importance of CIF as an oviposition stimulant. The genotype of swede that was preferred by both fly species in tests with plants and methanolic leaf surface extracts, also stimulated oviposition more in tests with the glucosinolate‐fractions or the CIF‐fractions derived from the surface extracts, respectively. Thus, glucosinolates and CIF together account for the observed preference among the genotypes and may also be responsible for their susceptibility under field conditions. In the two kale genotypes the preference for plants or surface extracts differed from the preference among the corresponding glucosinolate‐ and CIF‐fractions, indicating that additional, as yet unknown chemical factors may also be involved. For both groups of stimulants tarsal chemoreceptors allow electrophysiological monitoring of glucosinolate‐ and CIF‐activity in fractionated surface extracts. For D. radicum the chemosensory activity of both glucosinolate‐ and CIF‐fractions corresponded to the respective behavioural activity in the oviposition preference tests, suggesting that preference for oviposition among genotypes can be predicted from the electrophysiological activity of their fractions. The chemosensory response of D. floralis, in particular to the CIF‐fractions, was less pronounced than the response of D. radicum, indicating interspecific differences in the perception of the major oviposition stimulants. We discuss the potential application of electrophysiological techniques in support of other screening methods used in breeding for root fly resistance in Brassica crops.