Abscisic acid involvement on expression of related gene and phytochemicals during ripening in strawberry fruit Fragaria x ananassa cv. Camino Real

The regulation of non-climacteric fruits ripening is not enlightened yet. Strawberry is a representative example of non-climacteric fruit, so it has been used as a model system for this category. In the present work, we evaluated the effect of exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) over its perception, signaling and biosynthesis genes FaPYR1, FaCHLH, FaASR and FaNCED1, of which the expression was analyzed in Fragaria x ananassa cv. Camino Real by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Fruit physicochemical and phytochemical characteristics were also evaluated in field and postharvest tests. The gene transcripts accumulation were influenced by ABA-treatment, having changes in gene expression patterns at the different stages of growth and fruit development, with the highest accumulation, due the treatment, occurring mainly in the field tests, with different pattern for each gene. ABA also significantly influenced the phytochemical profile of sugars and phenolic compounds contents, mainly in the field treated fruits at different stages. These results indicate that ABA regulates phenylpropanoids pathway of the maturation of strawberry fruit, leaving the fruits with a higher concentration of phenolic compounds. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.