| 研究実績の概要 |
Numerous physiological events in most living organisms are regulated by the circadian system. Understanding the relationship of clock genes and changes in quality is a vital key to further improve postharvest handling and quality control of fruits and vegetables. The effects of storage environments such as light/dark condition, temperature, and controlled atmosphere storage on the expression of clock genes, postharvest quality characteristics and their related genes in fresh produce were investigated. As a results, it was successfully found that the circadian rhythm existed in postharvest fresh produce such as soybean sprouts and spinaches. Low temperature storage, high CO2 concentrations storage, and low O2 concentrations storage altered the rhythmicity of clock genes with maintaining the postharvest quality, including reduced respiration, weight loss and browning incidence in soybean sprouts. In addition, the involvement of clock genes and photoreceptor genes in changes of ascorbic acid metabolism were observed in spinach under light/dark storage condition. Overall, the findings first suggest a possible link between circadian clock and postharvest quality maintenance of fresh produce.
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