Structural and physiological changes associated with the skin spot disorder in apple

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • Eckhard Grimm
  • Bishnu P. Khanal
  • Andreas Winkler
  • Moritz Knoche
  • Dirk Köpcke

External Research Organisations

  • Chamber of Agriculture Lower Saxony
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)111-118
Number of pages8
JournalPostharvest biology and technology
Volume64
Issue number1
Early online date10 Nov 2011
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2012

Abstract

Skin spot is an important physiological disorder of 'Elstar' apples (Malus×domestica Borkh.) that occurs after fruit have been removed from controlled atmosphere storage. Skin spots are irregular patches of small, round, brown blemishes. Cross-sections reveal a browning of protoplasts (coagulated) and of cell walls that extends into the hypodermis. Skin spots are always associated with linear, gaping and non-gaping microcracks in the cuticle. Staining of apple skin with calcofluor white usually results in white fluorescence of cell walls but, within a skin spot, the white fluorescence is weak or absent. Cell walls within, and in the immediate vicinity of skin spots stain with phloroglucin/HCl indicating the presence of lignin. The area of skin affected by skin spots was positively and linearly correlated with the area of the non-blush fruit surface infiltrated by acridine orange. In general, skin spots were limited to the non-blush fruit surface and occurred more frequently near the stem-end than the calyx region of the fruit. Skin spot areas were correlated with a 2.5-fold increase in water vapour permeability compared with unaffected areas (23.8±4.0ms-1 with skin spots, 9.6±2.1×10-5ms-1 without skin spots). Strips of the fruit skin from regions with skin spots had an increased maximum force and modulus of elasticity. Dipping fruit in ascorbic acid (0.1 or 0.3mM for 10min) before storage decreased the area affected by skin spots. There was no effect of dipping in ethanol/water (70%, v/v, 15min) or in solutions of captan (1.5gL-1, 10min) or trifloxystrobin (0.1gL-1, 10min). In contrast, prestorage treatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (630nLL-1 for 24h) or poststorage incubation in H2O2 (10% for 2, 6, 10 and 16h) increased skin spots. Our data are consistent with a typical cell response to an oxidative burst that seems to be focussed on particular regions of the 'Elstar' fruit surface by concentrations of cuticular microcracks, and that is possibly caused by reoxygenation injury upon removal from CA storage.

Keywords

    Antioxidants, Controlled atmosphere, Cuticle, Malus×domestica, Microcrack, Skin disorder

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Structural and physiological changes associated with the skin spot disorder in apple. / Grimm, Eckhard; Khanal, Bishnu P.; Winkler, Andreas et al.
In: Postharvest biology and technology, Vol. 64, No. 1, 02.2012, p. 111-118.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Grimm E, Khanal BP, Winkler A, Knoche M, Köpcke D. Structural and physiological changes associated with the skin spot disorder in apple. Postharvest biology and technology. 2012 Feb;64(1):111-118. Epub 2011 Nov 10. doi: 10.1016/j.postharvbio.2011.10.004
Grimm, Eckhard ; Khanal, Bishnu P. ; Winkler, Andreas et al. / Structural and physiological changes associated with the skin spot disorder in apple. In: Postharvest biology and technology. 2012 ; Vol. 64, No. 1. pp. 111-118.
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title = "Structural and physiological changes associated with the skin spot disorder in apple",
abstract = "Skin spot is an important physiological disorder of 'Elstar' apples (Malus×domestica Borkh.) that occurs after fruit have been removed from controlled atmosphere storage. Skin spots are irregular patches of small, round, brown blemishes. Cross-sections reveal a browning of protoplasts (coagulated) and of cell walls that extends into the hypodermis. Skin spots are always associated with linear, gaping and non-gaping microcracks in the cuticle. Staining of apple skin with calcofluor white usually results in white fluorescence of cell walls but, within a skin spot, the white fluorescence is weak or absent. Cell walls within, and in the immediate vicinity of skin spots stain with phloroglucin/HCl indicating the presence of lignin. The area of skin affected by skin spots was positively and linearly correlated with the area of the non-blush fruit surface infiltrated by acridine orange. In general, skin spots were limited to the non-blush fruit surface and occurred more frequently near the stem-end than the calyx region of the fruit. Skin spot areas were correlated with a 2.5-fold increase in water vapour permeability compared with unaffected areas (23.8±4.0ms-1 with skin spots, 9.6±2.1×10-5ms-1 without skin spots). Strips of the fruit skin from regions with skin spots had an increased maximum force and modulus of elasticity. Dipping fruit in ascorbic acid (0.1 or 0.3mM for 10min) before storage decreased the area affected by skin spots. There was no effect of dipping in ethanol/water (70%, v/v, 15min) or in solutions of captan (1.5gL-1, 10min) or trifloxystrobin (0.1gL-1, 10min). In contrast, prestorage treatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (630nLL-1 for 24h) or poststorage incubation in H2O2 (10% for 2, 6, 10 and 16h) increased skin spots. Our data are consistent with a typical cell response to an oxidative burst that seems to be focussed on particular regions of the 'Elstar' fruit surface by concentrations of cuticular microcracks, and that is possibly caused by reoxygenation injury upon removal from CA storage.",
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T1 - Structural and physiological changes associated with the skin spot disorder in apple

AU - Grimm, Eckhard

AU - Khanal, Bishnu P.

AU - Winkler, Andreas

AU - Knoche, Moritz

AU - Köpcke, Dirk

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded in part by grants from the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (grant no. 76251-17-4/09/ZN2543 ) and AgroFresh Inc . We thank Peter Grimm-Wetzel, Jörg Hilbers and Rolf Kirchhof for excellent technical support, the fruit growers of the Altes Land for providing fruit samples, Hans de Wild (AgroFresh Inc.) for useful discussion and Sandy Lang for critical comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Y1 - 2012/2

N2 - Skin spot is an important physiological disorder of 'Elstar' apples (Malus×domestica Borkh.) that occurs after fruit have been removed from controlled atmosphere storage. Skin spots are irregular patches of small, round, brown blemishes. Cross-sections reveal a browning of protoplasts (coagulated) and of cell walls that extends into the hypodermis. Skin spots are always associated with linear, gaping and non-gaping microcracks in the cuticle. Staining of apple skin with calcofluor white usually results in white fluorescence of cell walls but, within a skin spot, the white fluorescence is weak or absent. Cell walls within, and in the immediate vicinity of skin spots stain with phloroglucin/HCl indicating the presence of lignin. The area of skin affected by skin spots was positively and linearly correlated with the area of the non-blush fruit surface infiltrated by acridine orange. In general, skin spots were limited to the non-blush fruit surface and occurred more frequently near the stem-end than the calyx region of the fruit. Skin spot areas were correlated with a 2.5-fold increase in water vapour permeability compared with unaffected areas (23.8±4.0ms-1 with skin spots, 9.6±2.1×10-5ms-1 without skin spots). Strips of the fruit skin from regions with skin spots had an increased maximum force and modulus of elasticity. Dipping fruit in ascorbic acid (0.1 or 0.3mM for 10min) before storage decreased the area affected by skin spots. There was no effect of dipping in ethanol/water (70%, v/v, 15min) or in solutions of captan (1.5gL-1, 10min) or trifloxystrobin (0.1gL-1, 10min). In contrast, prestorage treatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (630nLL-1 for 24h) or poststorage incubation in H2O2 (10% for 2, 6, 10 and 16h) increased skin spots. Our data are consistent with a typical cell response to an oxidative burst that seems to be focussed on particular regions of the 'Elstar' fruit surface by concentrations of cuticular microcracks, and that is possibly caused by reoxygenation injury upon removal from CA storage.

AB - Skin spot is an important physiological disorder of 'Elstar' apples (Malus×domestica Borkh.) that occurs after fruit have been removed from controlled atmosphere storage. Skin spots are irregular patches of small, round, brown blemishes. Cross-sections reveal a browning of protoplasts (coagulated) and of cell walls that extends into the hypodermis. Skin spots are always associated with linear, gaping and non-gaping microcracks in the cuticle. Staining of apple skin with calcofluor white usually results in white fluorescence of cell walls but, within a skin spot, the white fluorescence is weak or absent. Cell walls within, and in the immediate vicinity of skin spots stain with phloroglucin/HCl indicating the presence of lignin. The area of skin affected by skin spots was positively and linearly correlated with the area of the non-blush fruit surface infiltrated by acridine orange. In general, skin spots were limited to the non-blush fruit surface and occurred more frequently near the stem-end than the calyx region of the fruit. Skin spot areas were correlated with a 2.5-fold increase in water vapour permeability compared with unaffected areas (23.8±4.0ms-1 with skin spots, 9.6±2.1×10-5ms-1 without skin spots). Strips of the fruit skin from regions with skin spots had an increased maximum force and modulus of elasticity. Dipping fruit in ascorbic acid (0.1 or 0.3mM for 10min) before storage decreased the area affected by skin spots. There was no effect of dipping in ethanol/water (70%, v/v, 15min) or in solutions of captan (1.5gL-1, 10min) or trifloxystrobin (0.1gL-1, 10min). In contrast, prestorage treatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (630nLL-1 for 24h) or poststorage incubation in H2O2 (10% for 2, 6, 10 and 16h) increased skin spots. Our data are consistent with a typical cell response to an oxidative burst that seems to be focussed on particular regions of the 'Elstar' fruit surface by concentrations of cuticular microcracks, and that is possibly caused by reoxygenation injury upon removal from CA storage.

KW - Antioxidants

KW - Controlled atmosphere

KW - Cuticle

KW - Malus×domestica

KW - Microcrack

KW - Skin disorder

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DO - 10.1016/j.postharvbio.2011.10.004

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