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Pineapple fruits from transgenic plants have limited differences on mesocarp biochemical component contents

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Variations brought about by pineapple genetic transformation do not appear to be physiologically significant in fruits

Abstract

In terms of tropical fruit production, pineapple ranks as one of the major commercially grown fruit crops globally. Our previous research led to the development of a technique suitable for genetic modification of pineapple. The transgenic plants generated were characterized following hardening-off and during the subsequent 8 years of in-situ growth. The current work focuses on the results of a comparison of selected fruit mesocarp physical and biochemical (indicators related to oxidative metabolism) traits across untransformed control plants propagated by cutting, micropropagated untransformed control plants, and micropropagated genetically transformed plants. At the fruit ripening stage, the statistical analysis revealed no biologically meaningful differences in fruit mass (with tops included) (c. 2.0 kg) between transgenic and both groups of control plants. Moreover, contents of aldehydes, soluble phenolics, shikimic acid, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and p-coumaric acid were statistically comparable across the three groups. However, there were small but significant differences in the content of chlorophylls (a, b), carotenoids, malondialdehyde, proteins, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl, and cell wall-linked phenolics. This also included small changes in the levels of enzymes (i.e. superoxide dismutase and peroxidase). Furthermore, fruits from micropropagated control plants showed 2.2-fold more catalase activity than control plants propagated by cutting and transgenic plants; transgenic fruits contained 1.8-fold more caffeic acid than those from macropropagated and micropropagated control plants; fruits from micropropagated control plants and transgenic plants showed 3.9-folds higher ferulic acid content than macropropagated control plants; fruit sinapic acid content was 2.5-fold higher in micropropagated control plants than in transgenic and macropropagated control plants. The differences in biochemical traits brought about by transformation do not appear to be physiologically significant, given that the fruit mass was not different from control plants.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Technological Institute of Costa Rica; the Plant Improvement Division of the ARC-Tropical and Subtropical Crops (South Africa); the University of the Western Cape (South Africa); the Institute of Natural Resources (South Africa); and the Bioplant Centre (University of Ciego de Ávila, Cuba). It was also partially supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through a grant to Dr. José Carlos Lorenzo Feijoo. Authors are grateful to Prof. Dr. Jutta Papenbrock, Dr. Yvana Glasenapp and Dr. Ariel Turcios (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany) for their excellent scientific suggestions. Authors are also grateful to Mrs. Bárbara Valle, Ms. Alitza Iglesias and Mr. José Laguna for their skilled technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Plant Breeding and Conservation of Genetic Resources, Bioplant Center, University of Ciego de Avila, 69450, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba

    Lourdes Yabor, Daviel Gómez, Lisbet Pérez-Bonachea, Julia Martínez, Doris Escalante & José Carlos Lorenzo

  2. Biology School, Technological Institute of Costa Rica, Cartago, 25525333, Costa Rica

    Giovanni Garro

  3. Plant Improvement, Agricultural Research Council-Tropical and Subtropical Crops, Private Bag X11208, Nelspruit, 1200, South Africa

    Elliosha Hajari

  4. Department for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Bellville, 7535, South Africa

    Sershen

  5. Institute of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 100396, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa

    Sershen

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  1. Lourdes Yabor
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  2. Daviel Gómez
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  3. Lisbet Pérez-Bonachea
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  4. Julia Martínez
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  6. Giovanni Garro
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  7. Elliosha Hajari
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  8. Sershen
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  9. José Carlos Lorenzo
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Correspondence to José Carlos Lorenzo.

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Yabor, L., Gómez, D., Pérez-Bonachea, L. et al. Pineapple fruits from transgenic plants have limited differences on mesocarp biochemical component contents. Acta Physiol Plant 43, 6 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-020-03181-2

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