ISHS Acta Horticulturae 113: II International Symposium on Post-harvest Physiology of Cut Flowers
SENESCENCE PROCESSES AS REFLECTED IN CHANGE IN POLYSACCHA= RIDIC CELL WALL COMPONENTS (1) |
| Authors: | R. Jona, E. Accati, S. Mayak |
| Abstract:
On the basis of well known data proving that sugars are involved in extending vase life of cut flowers, we investigated the fate of insoluble cell wall polysaccharides. Two different varieties of mediterranean carnations were chosen according to the different length of vase life: 'Alice', a yellow long vase life cultivar and 'Astor', a red short vase life cultivar. Their petals were histochemically analyzed at different time after harvest. The Nawashin fixed and paraffin embedded petals were submitted to extraction in order to selectively remove pectic substances, hemicellulose and non-cellulosic polysaccharides. The non-extracted and extracted slices were stained together by Periodic-Acid-Shiff and their staining intensity comparatively evaluated by histophotometric analysis. The main content of cell wall are insoluble pectins which are present in different amount in the two varieties. The poorly keeping 'Astor' cultivar is characterized by 25% lower pectin content than the well keeping 'Alice' cultivar. | |
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