A Holistic Omics-Based Overview of Postharvest Wound Response and Mineral Dynamics in Broccoli Stalks During the...

Broccoli harvest involves cutting the stalk and creating a wound site known as the incision site (IC), which immediately triggers a self-adaptive stage (SAS, ~12 h) before precooling. This early postharvest stage is critical for wound perception, signaling, healing, redox balance, and mineral redistribution. Here, we employed a multi-omics approach combining transcriptomics, metabolomics, and mineralomics to characterize dynamic responses at the IC across 0, 3, 6, and 12 h post-wounding. A total of 6599 shared DEGs were identified across timepoints, with 4137 DEGs specific to 3 versus 0 h, substantially more than at 6 or 12 h. GO enrichment analysis revealed rapid induction of abiotic stress responses, transmembrane transport, and kinase signaling. Ca²⁺-ROS-MAPK signaling genes (ATP2C, CML, CPK, MPK4, RBOH) were rapidly upregulated at 3 h, along with hormone-related genes: LOX2S, AOC, OPR, AOS (jasmonic acid), ABAI, NCED (abscisic acid), and ACS (ethylene). Wound healing genes, for example, PAL, 4CL, and redox-related genes like GST and GPX, exhibited maximal expression at 3 h. Mineralomics revealed transient surges in Fe, K⁺, and Na⁺ at 3 h, tightly correlated with upregulation of ion transporters (HKT, SLC47A family). Moreover, metabolomics showed the accumulation of signaling lipids, hormone derivatives, phenylpropanoids, and sulforaphane at 3 h, confirming the first 3 h as the primary metabolic reprogramming window. These findings suggest that interventions to enhance wound repair, redox stability, and mineral homeostasis should be taken within 3 h to delay senescence and extend broccoli postharvest shelf life.