Abstract
Table grapes are highly susceptible to abscission during storage and transportation, which significantly impacts their commercial value. To address this issue, ‘Thompson Seedless’ grapes were used as the test material, and two preharvest treatments, namely nano-calcium (nano-Ca) and CaCl2 (Cl–Ca), were sprayed 2 weeks before harvest. The findings revealed that Cl–Ca had minimal effects on grape characteristics postharvest, while nano-Ca significantly increased the calcium content in fruits, rachis, and abscission zone (AZ) and inhibited ethylene production in these sections by suppressing the expression level of VvACO1. Furthermore, nano-Ca increased pectin calcium content in the abscission zone, decreased the activities of polygalacturonase (PG) and pectinesterase (PE), delayed pectin degradation, reduced weight loss percentage, decay percentage, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and relative conductivity, and maintained a higher berry detachment force (BDF) and lower berry abscission percentage. Overall, our research demonstrates that nano-Ca is a promising method to reduce berry abscission in table grapes during storage and transportation.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province (22A0615) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2021JJ30377; 2022JJ40194).
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MZ, JL, YL, QW, ZF, and JZ performed and analyzed the experiments. MZ wrote the manuscript. JY designed the research and edited the manuscript.
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Zhu, M., Li, J., Liu, Y. et al. Preharvest Nano-calcium Reduces the Table Grape Berry Abscission by Regulating Ethylene Production During Storage. J Plant Growth Regul 43, 1400–1409 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-023-11192-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-023-11192-9