Enhancing shelf life and antioxidant capacity in nectarine fruit with threonine under low temperature

Chilling injury limits the storage life of nectarine fruit at low temperatures. Therefore, increasing the resistance to chilling injury will provide long-term maintenance of nectarine fruit at low temperatures. In this research, the effect of threonine at 250 and 500 µM on chilling injury and fruit quality of nectarine during storage at 1°C with 95% relative humidity for 30 days was studied. The measured traits included chilling injury, hydrogen peroxide, lipid peroxidation, TSS, organic acids, antioxidant capacity and antioxidant enzyme activity. The results showed that chilling injury decreased hydrogen peroxide production and lipid peroxidation in treated fruits with threonine compared to control during storage. The amount of organic acids, TSS, antioxidant capacity and activity of antioxidant enzymes in treated fruits increased until the end of storage. In general, the 500 µM threonine had the most significant effect on maintaining the quality of nectarine fruits during storage.