Contribution of GABA shunt to chilling tolerance in anthurium cut flowers in response to postharvest salicylic acid treatment

• Salicylic acid treatment ameliorated chilling injury in anthurium cut flowers leading to flowers with lower spathe browning.
• Salicylic acid treatment enhanced GABA-T activity which was coincided with lower GABA content.
• Salicylic acid treatment enhanced ATP content which was coincided with lower H2O2 content.
• Salicylic acid treatment enhanced unSFA/SFA ratio which was coincided with lower PLD and LOX activities.
• Salicylic acid treatment enhanced GABA shunt pathway activity leading to consumption of GABA for supplying higher ATP and scavenging H2O2.

Due to the sensitivity of anthurium flowers to chilling injury (CI), its favorable temperature storage is 12.5–20 °C. There is evidence that maintaining the functional γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt pathway is crucial for tolerance to postharvest chilling stress by providing energy (ATP) and reducing molecule (NADH) and minimizing reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. In this experiment, the impact of salicylic acid (SA) treatment applied by postharvest stem-end dipping (2 mM, 15 min at 20 °C) on GABA shunt pathway activity of anthurium cut flowers (cv. Sirion) storage at 4 °C for 21 days were investigated. The anthurium cut flowers in response to 2 mM SA treatment displayed significantly higher GABA transaminase (GABA-T) activity during storage at 4 °C for 21 days, which coincided with lower GABA content, leading to flowers with lower spathe browning. SA treatment enhanced GABA shunt pathway activity, by enhancing GABA-T activity, during storage at 4 °C, lead to consumption of GABA for providing sufficient ATP content associated with the lower H2O2 content. Also, anthurium cut flowers in response to SA treatment displayed significantly higher unsaturated/saturated fatty acids (unSFA/SFA) ratio, which can be results not only from higher energy content but also from lower phospholipase D (PLD) and lipoxygenase (LOX) activities. These findings showed that SA treatment at 2 mM maintained functional GABA shunt pathway activity which leads to providing higher ATP, lower H2O2 accumulation, higher unSFA/SFA ratio, proposed that the SA can be applied as an effective procedure for improving anthurium cut flowers tolerance to postharvest chilling stress, by enhancing membrane fluidity.