Hydroxycinnamic acids and UV-B depletion: Profiling and biosynthetic gene expression in flesh and peel of wild-type and hp-1

Hydroxycinnamic acids (HCAs) are phenolic compounds widely found in most plant families. Aim of the present work was to investigate their accumulation and biosynthetic gene expression in presence or absence of UV-B radiation in tomato fruits of wild-type and hp-1, a mutant characterized by exaggerated photoresponsiveness and increased fruit pigmentation. Gene expression and HCAs content were higher in hp-1 than in wild type peel and UV-B depletion determined a decrease in HCAs accumulation in wild-type and an increase in hp-1 fruits, generally in accordance with biosynthetic gene expression. In flesh, despite a similar transcript level of most genes between the two genotypes, HCAs content was generally higher in wild type than in hp-1, although remaining at a lower level with respect to wild type peel. Under UV-B depletion, a general reduction of HCAs content was observed in wild-type flesh, whereas an increase in the content of p-coumaric acid and caffeic acid was observed in hp-1 flesh.