Seasonal and temporal changes during storage affect quality attributes of green asparagus

Abstract

HighlightsFavourable conditions at harvest lowered ABA and increased total sugar content.Low ABA in spears at harvest reduced rate of senescence during storage.Shift in sugar metabolism associated with changes in light and temperature.Storage time had a negative impact on spear texture and sugar content.

Investigating the role of abscisic acid and its catabolites on senescence processes in green asparagus under controlled atmosphere (CA) storage regimes

“…In addition, RR and RQ measurements were automatically recorded every 48 h by the LabPod™ system. Once opened, spears were randomly selected for physiological and biochemical analysis, alongside additional spears for shelf-life assessment (in air at 7 °C for up to 7 days in light, as previously described by Anastasiadi et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Cutting energy was measured with a uniaxial testing machine (Instron 5542, Instron, Buckinghamshire, UK) as described in Anastasiadi et al (2020) . Cutting energy (mJ) defined as the force required for cutting the spear at a depth of 2 and 4 mm was used as a measure of firmness at two different positions: apical (4 cm from the tip) and middle (11 cm from the tip).…”

“…Objective colour assessments of the tip (0–4 cm from top) and basal regions of the spears (11–15 cm from top) were performed as described in Anastasiadi et al (2020) . Samples were placed inside a Photo-E-Box plus 1419 set at D65 (6500 K) under LED lights (back, left and right) and images of the whole spear were captured using a Lumenera Infinity 3 high definition digital camera with CCD colour sensor (Lumenera Corporation, Ottawa, ON).…”

“…The freeze-dried powder was stored at −40 °C. Non-structural carbohydrates and the amino acid L -asparagine were extracted according to the method described in Anastasiadi et al (2020) .…”

“…Furthermore, ABA responsive genes in Arabidopsis activate chlorophyll catabolic enzyme genes ( Gao et al, 2016 ). The role of ABA in asparagus, has recently been found to negatively impact on the quality of asparagus during storage with high levels correlating with low sugar content and reduced shelf life ( Anastasiadi et al, 2020 ). However, there is a paucity of other research exploring hormonal flux during asparagus storage particularly under CA/MAP conditions.…”