EFFECT OF FLURIDONE ON SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL AND QUALITATIVE FEATURES OF RIPENING TOMATO FRUIT

In tomato fruits, chlorophyll, lycopene and beta-carotene are mostly responsible for the color. During ripening of tomato fruits, the color of the pericarp changes from green to red as chlorophyll is degraded and carotenoids accumulate. These changes are associated with an increase in respiration and ethylene production. Carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in plants can be disturbed by herbicide fluridone (1-methyl-3-phenyl-5-[3-trifluoromethyl(phenyl)]4(1H)-pyridinone), which inhibits the activity of phytoene desaturase, an enzyme responsible for conversion of phytoene to phytofluene. Fluridone is also used as an inhibitor of biosynthesis of abscisic acid (ABA) and strigolactones, and it reduces chlorophyll production in plants. In our research we studied the effect of fluridone on some physiological parameters, such as color, firmness, ethylene production, lycopene and chlorophyll content during ripening of the tomato fruit. Tomato plants cv. Altadena (Syngenta) were cultivated in a greenhouse in controlled temperature and both immature and mature fruits were used for the experiments, performed between August and November 2016. Fluridone at concentrations of 0.1% and 1.0% in lanolin paste was applied as a 2-3 mm stripe from the top to the base of tomato fruits, and as a control a stripe of lanolin was applied in the same way on the opposite side of the fruits. Fluridone at a concentration of 1.0% greatly inhibited lycopene accumulation in the pericarp of tomato fruits from the treated side. The measurements of fruit firmness have shown no significant differences between firmness of the part of the tomato fruits treated with fluridone, and the non-treated ones. Tomato fruits treated with fluridone produced amounts of ethylene similar to those found in control tissues on the opposite side of the same fruit. Fluridone delayed chlorophyll degradation in tomato fruits. The metabolic significance of these findings is discussed with the role of carotenogenesis inhibition in tomato fruit ripening.