Reduced chilling injury in cucumber by nitric oxide and the antioxidant response.

Cucumber fruit were pre-treated with 25μll(-1) nitric oxide (NO) for 12h at 20°C, and then stored at 2±1°C and 95% relative humidity for 15days. Chilling injury index, membrane permeability, lipid peroxidation, superoxide anion (O2(-)) production rate, H2O2 content, activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POD), and DPPH-radical scavenging activity were measured. The results showed that the application of NO at 25μll(-1) was most effective in reducing CI in cucumber fruit. The treatment reduced the increases in membrane permeability and lipid peroxidation, delayed the increases in both O2(-) production rate and H2O2 content. The NO-treated fruit exhibited significantly higher activities of SOD, CAT, APX and POD and higher DPPH-radical scavenging activity than control fruit during the storage. The overall results suggest that NO enhanced chilling tolerance in cucumber fruit by improving the antioxidative defence system.