The Impact of Rootstock on “Big Top” Nectarine Postharvest Concerning Chilling Injury, Biochemical and Molecular Parameters

Abstract

Peaches and nectarines have a short shelf life even when harvested at appropriate physiological maturity. Market life is increased by storage at low temperatures. However, chilling injury symptoms can appear, causing physiological disorders and limiting shipping potential. The rootstock effect on the post-harvest quality has hardly been explored. Thus, the principal aim of this work was to study the influence of seven different Prunus rootstocks on the “Big Top” nectarine cv, considering harvest and post-harvest quality parameters and their correlation with chilling injury disorders. Basic fruit quality traits, individual sugars and organic acids analyzed by HPLC and other biochemical compounds such as relative antioxidant capacity, total phenolics content, flavonoids, anthocyanins, vitamin C and related enzyme activities (PAL, POD, PPO) were considered. In addition, correlations with possible candidate genes for chilling injury (CI) tolerance were searched by qPCR. Although a low susceptibility to CI symptoms has been found in “Big Top”, rootstocks “PADAC 9902-01”, “PADAC 99-05” and “ReplantPAC” exhibited lower CI symptoms. A statistically significant influence of the evaluated rootstocks was found concerning the parameters of this study. Phenols and anthocyanins seem to be important parameters to be considered in the prevention of chilling injury disorders. Moreover, PAL1, PPO4, PG2 and LDOX genes relative expressions were positively associated with chilling injury susceptibility. This study opens new perspectives for understanding peach fruit adaptation and response to cold storage temperatures during the post-harvest period.