Low-temperature conditioning alleviates chilling injury in loquat fruit and regulates glycine betaine content and energy status.

The influence of low-temperature conditioning (LTC) treatment on chilling injury, glycine betaine content, and energy metabolism in loquat fruit at 1 °C storage was investigated. The results indicated that LTC treatment significantly reduced chilling injury index, ion leakage, and malondialdehyde content in loquat fruit. Betaine aldehyde hydrogenase (BADH) activity and endogenous glycine betaine (GB) content in loquats treated with LTC were significantly higher than those in control fruit. Moreover, LTC treatment induced activities of energy metabolism-associated enzymes, including H(+)-adenosine triphosphatase, Ca(2+)-adenosine triphosphatase, succinic dehydrogenase, and cytochrome c oxidase. LTC treatment triggered obviously higher levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content and energy charge in loquat fruit. These results showed that LTC possibly alleviated chilling injury and enhanced chilling tolerance of loquat fruit by enhancing endogenous GB content and energy status.