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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Maricopa, Arizona » U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center » Plant Physiology and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #283061
Title: Fruit cuticle lipid composition and water loss in a diverse collection of pepper (capsicum)

Author
item PARSONS, EUGENE - Purdue University
item POPOPVSKY, SIGAL - Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center
item LOHREY, GREGORY - Purdue University
item ALKALAI-TUVIA, SHARON - Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center
item PERZELAN, YAACOV - Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center
item BOSLAND, PAUL - New Mexico State University
item BEBELI, PENELOPE - Agricultural University Of Athens
item PARAN, ILAN - Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center
item FALLIK, ELAZAR - Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center
item Jenks, Matthew

Submitted to: Physiologia Plantarum
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/29/2012
Publication Date: 1/24/2013
Citation: Parsons, E.P., Popopvsky, S., Lohrey, G.T., Alkalai-Tuvia, S., Perzelan, Y., Bosland, P., Bebeli, P., Paran, I., Fallik, E., Jenks, M.A. 2013. Fruit cuticle lipid composition and water loss in a diverse collection of pepper (capsicum). Physiologia Plantarum. doi:10.1111/ppl.12035.

Interpretive Summary: Pepper (Capsicum spp.) fruits are covered by a relatively thick coating of cuticle that limits fruit water loss, a trait previously associated with maintenance of post-harvest fruit quality during commercial marketing. To shed light on the chemical-compositional diversity of cuticles in pepper, the fruit cuticles from 50 diverse pepper genotypes from a world collection were screened for both wax and cutin monomer amount and composition. These same genotypes were also screened for fruit water loss rate and tested for cuticle associations with fruit transpiration. Our results revealed an unexpectedly large amount of variation for the fruit cuticle lipids, with a more than fifteen-fold range for total wax amounts and a more than sixteen-fold range for cutin monomer amounts between the most extreme accessions. Within the major wax constituents fatty acids varied from 1 to 45%, primary alcohols from 2 to 23%, n-alkanes from 16 to 70% and triterpenoids and sterols from 10% to 73%. Within the cutin monomers, total hexadecanoic acids ranged from 54 to 87%, total octadecanoic acids ranged from 10 to 38%, and coumaric acids ranged from 0.2 to 8% of the total cutin. We also observed considerable differences in water loss among the accessions, and unique correlations between water loss and cuticle constituents. The resources described here will be valuable for future studies of the physiological function of fruit cuticle, for the identification of genes and QTLs associated with fruit cuticle synthesis in pepper fruit, and as a starting point for breeding improved fruit quality in pepper.

Technical Abstract: Pepper (Capsicum spp.) fruits are covered by a relatively thick coating of cuticle that limits fruit water loss, a trait previously associated with maintenance of post-harvest fruit quality during commercial marketing. We’ve examined the fruit cuticles from 50 diverse pepper genotypes from a world collection for both wax and cutin monomer amount and composition, the two major lipids compounds in cuticle. These same genotypes were also screened for fruit water loss rate and tested for cuticle associations with fruit transpiration. We discovered an unexpectedly large amount of variation for the fruit cuticle lipids, with a more than fifteen-fold range for total wax amounts and a more than sixteen-fold range for cutin monomer amounts between the most extreme accessions. There was also a major amount of variation for the major wax constituent classes fatty acids, primary alcohols, n-alkanes, and triterpenoids and sterols. Within the cutin monomers, total hexadecanoic acids, octadecanoic acids, and coumaric acids varied greatly. We also observed considerable differences in water loss from the fruits of these accessions, and found unique correlations between water loss and cuticle constituents. The resources described here will be valuable for future studies of the physiological function of fruit cuticle, for the identification of genes and QTLs associated with fruit cuticle synthesis in pepper fruit, and as a starting point for breeding improved fruit quality in pepper.