Contribution of polyamines metabolism and GABA shunt to chilling tolerance induced by nitric oxide in cold-stored banana fruit

• Chilling injury was alleviated by NO treatment in postharvest banana fruit.
• NO treatment promoted accumulation of PAs, GABA and proline.
• NO treatment enhanced ADC, ODC, DAO and PAO activities.
• NO treatment enhanced GAD activities, while inhibited GABA-T activities.
• Accumulation of PAs, GABA and proline contribute to chilling tolerance.

Effect of exogenous nitric oxide (NO) on polyamines (PAs) catabolism, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt, proline accumulation and chilling injury of banana fruit under cold storage was investigated. Banana fruit treated with NO sustained lower chilling injury index than the control. Notably elevated nitric oxide synthetase activity and endogenous NO level were observed in NO-treated banana fruit. PAs contents in treated fruit were significantly higher than control fruit, due to the elevated activities of arginine decarboxylase and ornithine decarboxylase. NO treatment increased the activities of diamine oxidase, polyamine oxidase and glutamate decarboxylase, while reduced GABA transaminase activity to lower levels compared with control fruit, which resulted the accumulation of GABA. Besides, NO treatment upregulated proline content and significantly enhanced the ornithine aminotransferase activity. These results indicated that the chilling tolerance induced by NO treatment might be ascribed to the enhanced catabolism of PAs, GABA and proline.