Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity and its relationship to anthocyanin and flavonoid levels in New Zealand-grown apple cultivars

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity was measured in a range of New Zealand-grown apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) cultivars at three stages of fruit development. Anthocyanin and total flavonoid levels were also measured (by HPLC) in the same fruit, There was wide variation in the level of PAL activity, anthocyanin and total flavonoid levels in different apple cultivars and at different stages of development. There was no apparent correlation between average PAL activity over the three developmental stages and final anthocyanin concentration (r = 0.34, P > 0,1), but there was significant correlation between average PAL activity over the three developmental stages and the final concentration of total flavonoids (r = 0.75, P < 0.02). An inhibitor, PAL-IS, was also assayed in the same fruit but no correlation was found between PAL-IS and final anthocyanin levels (r = -0.30, P > 0.1) or total flavonoid levels (r = 0.15, P > 0.1). These results suggest that PAL activity has an influence on total flavonoid levels in the fruit but that PAL-IS does not. Anthocyanin levels are likely controlled at a point in the flavonoid pathway other than PAL or PAL-IS.