Enhancement of postharvest chilling tolerance in anthurium cut flowers by salicylic acid treatment via enhancing GABA shunt activity

Low temperature storage is widely used as a postharvest treatment to delay senescence in vegetables and ornamentals, and ripening in fruits, and thereby maintaining their postharvest quality. However, tropical and subtropical crops such as Anthurium flowers are sensitive to chilling injury, a physiopathy affecting these crops when subjected to temperatures below 12 °C but above the freezing point. The recommended optimum temperature for storage of anthurium cut flowers is 12.5–20 ◦C. The main symptom of chilling injury in anthurium flowers under low temperature storage is spadix wilting and spathe browning. The main symptom of chilling injury in anthurium flowers under low temperature storage is spadix wilting and spathe browning. In this experiment, the impact of 0, 1, 2 and 4 mM salicylic acid (SA) treatment applied by postharvest stem-end dipping (15 min at 20 ˚C) on GABA shunt pathway activity of anthurium cut flowers (cv. Sirion) storage at 4 ˚C for 21 days were investigated. SA treatment at 2 mM delayed spathe browning and retards electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) increase. The anthurium cut flowers in response to 2 mM SA treatment displayed significantly higher GABA transaminase (GABA-T) activity during storage at 4 ˚C for 21 days, which coincided with lower GABA content, leading to flowers with lower spathe browning. SA treatment enhanced GABA shunt pathway activity, by enhancing GABA-T activity, during storage at 4 ˚C, lead to consumption of GABA for providing higher ATP content associated with lower H2O2 content.These findings showed that SA treatment at 2 mM can be applied as an effective procedure for improving anthurium cut flowers tolerance to postharvest chilling stress. Anthurium flowers are sensitive to chilling injury, a physiopathy affecting these crops when subjected to temperatures below 12 °C but above the freezing point. The recommended optimum temperature for storage of anthurium cut flowers is 12.5–20 ◦C. The main symptom of chilling injury in anthurium flowers under low temperature storage is spadix wilting and spathe browning. Anthurium flowers are sensitive to chilling injury, a physiopathy affecting these crops when subjected to temperatures below 12 °C but above the freezing point. The recommended optimum temperature for storage of anthurium cut flowers is 12.5–20 ◦C. The main symptom of chilling injury in anthurium flowers under low temperature storage is spadix wilting and spathe browning.These findings showed that SA treatment at 2 mM can be applied as an effective procedure for improving anthurium cut flowers tolerance to postharvest chilling stress. These findings showed that SA treatment at 2 mM can be applied as an effective procedure for improving anthurium cut flowers tolerance to postharvest chilling stress.