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Ethylene and wound‐induced cyanide‐resistant respiration climaxes in potato: The synergistic role of CO 2 and the selective role of lycorine
Author(s) -
Laties George G.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3054.1987.tb04292.x
Subject(s) - respiration , lycorine , ethylene , cyanide , chemistry , solanum tuberosum , solanaceae , horticulture , botany , biology , alkaloid , biochemistry , stereochemistry , organic chemistry , gene , catalysis
When treated with ethylene in O 2 , conditioned potato ( Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Russet Burbank) tubers – that is, tubers kept at room temperature for 10 days or more – yield slices that are CN − resistant. Ten % CO 2 in the gas mixture not only synergizes the effect of ethylene, but replaces the need for conditioning as well. The response to CO 2 is more pronounced with increasing time from harvest. By contrast fresh slices from untreated tubers are CN − sensitive, as are slices from tubers incubated in O 2 or O 2 plus CO 2 . The suggestion is made that CN − resistance is constitutive, and that treatment with ethylene/CO 2 in O 2 confers on potato tuber tissue a resistance to the extensive degradation of membrane phospholipids that normally attends slicing and leads to the loss of CN − resistance. In this connection respiration inhibition by imidazole, an inhibitor of fatty acid α‐oxidation, is extensive in slices of untreated tubers, and sharply diminished in slices of ethylene‐treated tubers in proportion to their CN − resistance. The coextensive rise of respiration rate and CN − resistance in aged potato slices has led to the presumption that the CN − ‐resistant path mediates the respiration climax. Accordingly the alkaloid, lycorine, has been considered to inhibit the development of CN − resistance in aging potato slices because it curtails the wound‐induced respiration. A comparison was carried out on the effect of lycorine on CN − ‐sensitive and CN − ‐resistant fresh slices – the latter obtained from ethylene/CO 2 ‐treated tubers. Lycorine suppressed the development of the wound‐induced respiration without restricting the development of CN − resistance.