Rapid ingress of gaseous 1-MCP and acute suppression of ripening following short-term application to midclimacteric tomato under hypobaria

Our previous studies demonstrated that tomato fruit (breaker or pink) exposed at the midclimacteric stage to hypobaric hypoxia for 6 h exhibited transient increased sensitivity to subsaturating levels of 1-methylcyclopene (1-MCP). In the present study, we examined the effect of gaseous 1-MCP (500 nL L−1, 20.8 μmol m−3) applied to mid-climacteric (>60% peak ethylene production) tomato fruit under hypobaric hypoxia (10 kPa, 2.1 kPa O2,) for 1 h. Application of 500 nL L−1 1-MCP under atmospheric conditions had little effect on softening and timing and magnitude of peak ethylene production, and moderate effects on respiration and lycopene and PG accumulation. By contrast, midclimacteric fruit exposed to 500 nL L−1 gaseous 1-MCP under hypobaric hypoxia for 1 h showed acute disturbance of ripening. Firmness and hue angle declines were delayed for ten days and peak ethylene production for eleven days compared with trends for the other treatments. Maximum ethylene production did not exceed 50% of maxima for the other treatments and a definitive respiratory climacteric was not observed. Accumulation of internal gaseous 1-MCP was enhanced under hypobaric hypoxia. Internal 1-MCP in fruit exposed to 20 μL L−1 1-MCP (831 μmol m−3) under hypobaric hypoxia for 2 or 10 min averaged 7.5 ± 0.5 and 8.7 ± 1.4 μL L−1, respectively, compared with 0.8 ± 0.3 and 3.9 ± 0.7 μL L−1 in fruit exposed under atmospheric conditions. After 1 h exposure, internal 1-MCP averaged 10.8 ± 2.2 μL L−1 under hypobaric hypoxia compared with 5.3 ± 1.4 μL L−1 under atmospheric conditions. The results indicate that high efficacy of 1-MCP applied under hypobaric hypoxia is due to rapid ingress and accumulation of internal gaseous 1-MCP.