Data di Pubblicazione:
2018
Citazione:
FRUIT FLESH IN PEACH:CHARACTERIZATION OF THE 'SLOW SOFTENING' TEXTURE / A. Ciacciulli ; supervisor: D. Bassi, L. Rossini ; coordinatore: D. Bassi. DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE AGRARIE E AMBIENTALI - PRODUZIONE, TERRITORIO, AGROENERGIA, 2018 Jan 19. 30. ciclo, Anno Accademico 2017. [10.13130/a-ciacciulli_phd2018-01-19].
Abstract:
The aim of this research was to deepen the knowledge about the slow softening texture in peach.
The texture is a synthesis of several parameters detected by senses, derived from the food structure. The paramount sense in the texture perception is the tactile one, principally perceived by hand and mouth. The tactile perception is a combination of four classes of mechanoreceptors, each one specialized to perceive mechanic deformation with different speed. This combined perception influences the consumer evaluation of food quality, giving the texture importance among food characteristics. The texture could also affect the taste perception through mechanical actions on food structure. The mechanical property linked to the texture is associated with the cellular organization and the cell wall strength. The main cell wall component affecting texture in fresh fruit is pectin, a polymer of galacturonic acid. The disassembly of pectin involves several enzymatic and non-enzymatic activities acting directly in pectin cleavage or indirectly disrupting non-covalent interactions. The gold standard of texture analyses is the sensorial one, however several issues make sensorial analyses inapplicable to breeding programs to select plant with improved fruit texture. Several efforts were made to achieve instrumental analyses capable of substitute humans in texture analyses. To mimic the tactile sense, a discipline studying the material response to an applied force, the rheology, is applied. The easiest instrumental measure of rheology parameters is the penetrometer test, diffused to measure the firmness, but exploitable to collect the Young’s modulus and the slope of yield stress represented respectively elasticity and fracturability.
In peach, so far at least four textures were described, melting (M), stony hard (SH), non-melting (NM) and slow softening (SS). Prior to this work, no reliable objective nor fast tool were available to phenotype and select the SS trait in peach germplasm. The only reliable approach was a sensorial assessment done by a texture-trained panel, requiring repeated and time-consuming assessment. An objective, instrumental method, was set up by processing the data of a digital penetrometer test. The penetrometer itself, as reported in paragraph 2, does not support the ability to discriminate among the different texture types, as already reported in other works. In addition, this method appears to be affected by the fruit ripening season, since the early-ripening accessions tend to show faster loss of firmness, while the late-ripening exhibit a slower firmness loss.
Using the data collected in our experiment, the texture dynamic (TD) model was developed from the observation of differences in the rheogram shape due to the elasticity and fracturability parameters. The TD model, that excludes the firmness effect on the fracturability and elasticity parameters, was thus developed, after testing it on 20 accessions in three years, allowing for reliable discrimination between SS and M phenotype. Differences in the TD were also found when comparing M vs SH and M vs NM textures. In particular, when comparing M and SS, TD value is explained for the 96% from the texture.
The developed method was then applied (together with sensorial evaluation) to genetically dissect the SS trait. Association and QTL mapping approaches were combined by analyzing a germplasm panel and a biparental progeny, and a single locus at the end of chromosome 8 was identified. RNA-seq analysis of 2 SS and 2 M accessions suggested some common features with the SH type described in literature. In both texture types a lower auxin response was found when compared to the M type. This agrees with the already known activity of auxin in the modulation of cell wall
Tipologia IRIS:
Tesi di dottorato
Keywords:
slow-softening; texture; peach; digital penetrometer; phenotyping; fruit quality; locus
Elenco autori:
A. Ciacciulli
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