Effect of low oxygen stress on the metabolic responses of tomato fruit cells

Postharvest losses of fruits and vegetables can occur due to cell breakdown and browning during controlled atmosphere storage as a result of low oxygen (O₂) stress. Therefore, the study was designed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of the response of isolated tomato fruit cells incubated at low O₂ (hypoxic and anoxic) conditions as a model system. The O₂ stress conditions used for the experiment were based on the results of the Michaelis-Menten constant (K) of respiration. A total of 56 polar metabolites belonging mainly to different functional groups, including amino acids, organic acids, sugars and sugar alcohols, were identified using GC-MS. O₂ stress stimulated the biosynthesis of most of the free amino acids while decreasing the synthesis of most of the organic acids (especially those linked to the tricarboxylic acid cycle), sugars (except for ribose) and other nitrogen-containing compounds. The down-regulation of these TCA cycle metabolites served to provide energy to ensure the survival of the cell. Increases in the sugar alcohol levels and induction of fermentative metabolism were observed under low O₂ stress. By employing multivariate statistics, metabolites were identified that were essential to the oxygen stress response and establishing the correlation between metabolite abundance, oxygen levels, and incubation period were achievable. A higher correlation was observed between the O₂ levels and most of the metabolites.