Additional Blue LED during Cultivation Induces Cold Tolerance in Tomato Fruit but Only to an Optimum

Abstract

Tomato is a chilling-sensitive fruit. The aim of this study is to examine the role of preharvest blue LED lighting (BL) to induce cold tolerance in ‘Foundation’ tomatoes. Blue and red supplemental LED light was applied to achieve either 0, 12 or 24% additional BL (0B, 12B and 24B). Mature green (MG) or red (R) tomatoes were harvested and cold stored at 4 °C for 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 d, and then stored for 20 d at 20 °C (shelf life). Chilling injury (CI) indices, color and firmness, hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde, ascorbic acid and catalase activity were characterized. At harvest, R tomatoes cultivated at 12B were firmer and showed less coloration compared to fruit of other treatments. These fruits also showed higher loss of red color during cold storage and lower CI symptoms during shelf-life. MG tomatoes cultivated at 12B showed delayed coloring (non-chilled) and decreased weight loss (long cold stored) during shelf life compared to fruit in the other treatments. No effects of light treatments, both for MG and R tomatoes, were observed for the selected antioxidant capacity indicators. Improved cold tolerance for R tomatoes cultivated at 12B points to lycopene having higher scavenging activity at lower concentrations to mitigate chilling injury.

Multiple Physiological and Biochemical Functions of Ascorbic Acid in Plant Growth, Development, and Abiotic Stress Response

“…Under 120 mM NaCl salinity stress, both the growth and yield of Silybum marianum reduce sharply in all genotypes collected from diverse ecozones [84]. Plant chilling injury (CI) is caused by a series of events, starting with a slight increase in cell membrane viscosity, followed by an increase in ROS leading to further membrane dysfunction, protein oxidation, inhibition of enzymatic activity, and DNA and RNA damage [85]. Importantly, changes in the redox state of plants lead to changes in thiol protein (SH-group) patterns, which in turn generate metabolic perturbations [86].…”

Editorial: Quality of Ornamental Crops: Effect of Genotype, Preharvest, and Improved Production Chains on Quality Attributes of Ornamental Crops

“…Also, it is highlighted future research focus, considering the understanding of how light stimuli affect several features of cut flowers and investigating the reaction among species and cultivars (Horibe). Recent work has indicated that by applying specific treatments during the cultivation, quality can be improved (Affandi et al, 2020(Affandi et al, , 2022Min et al, 2021). The results of the study by Terfa et al show that increased blue light during preharvest improved stomatal function under high RH conditions.…”

Light regulation of quality and growth of basil

“…Blue light did not affect the activity of CAT or content of total ascorbic acid. The chilling tolerant tomatoes lost the red color faster which may indicate that the antioxidant lycopene scavenged ROS (Affandi et al, 2022). In basil, we found that both a low (9 %) and a high (90 %) percentage of blue light in combination with increased light intensity improved the postharvest chilling tolerance.…”

“…Furthermore, light spectrum can increase the content of antioxidants which may be beneficial during chilling. In tomato, blue light improved the chilling tolerance, which was presumable due to an increase of the antioxidant lycopene (Affandi et al, 2022). However, in anthurium cut flowers postharvest blue or white compared to darkness, red or red blue (70:30) light increased the CI due to an increase in water loss (Aliniaeifard et al, 2020).…”

“…To improve postharvest chilling tolerance several studies have investigated the use of pre-harvest light treatments such as modifying the light spectrum to increase the percentage of blue (400-500 nm) and far-red (FR, 700-800 nm) light (Affandi et al, 2020(Affandi et al, , 2022Kovács et al, 2020;Ahres et al, 2021). In this thesis it was investigated if light intensity and spectra influenced chilling tolerance.…”