Short-term high CO2 treatment alleviates chilling injury of persimmon cv. Fuyu by preserving the parenchyma structure

•Chilling injury of 'Fuyu' was associated with a disruption of cell walls and membranes.•Short-term high CO2 treatments alleviate chilling injury of 'Fuyu' persimmon.•Short-term high CO2 treatments preserve the integrity of cells walls and plasmalemma.

Persimmon cv. Fuyu is chilling-sensitive and manifests chilling injury symptoms, flesh gelling and fruit darkening, during cold storage and subsequent shelf life. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of short-term high CO2 treatments on chilling injury manifestation of 'Fuyu'. Short-term high CO2 treatments consisted in maintaining fruit in a 95% CO2 atmosphere for 0, 12, 24 or 36 h before storage at 1 °C. After 35 d and 50 d of low-temperature storage and after subsequent shelf-life periods of 5 d at 20 °C, fruit quality and microstructural changes of flesh were evaluated. Our results showed that short-term high CO2 treatments alleviate the main chilling injury symptoms, flesh gelling and fruit darkening. The longer the treatment, the greater chilling injury alleviation becomes. The microstructural study revealed that flesh gelling is associated with a complete disruption of cell walls and membranes, which led to the total loss of the initial parenchyma structure. Short-term high CO2 treatment alleviated flesh gelling by preserving the integrity of cells walls and plasmalemma.