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- Author or Editor: F. J. Pérez-Zúniga x
Abstract
Ethylene treatment affected protease activity in ovaries, but not petals, of cut roses (Rosa hybrida L.) ‘Sonia’. Protease activity in ovaries of ethylene-treated flowers decreased within the first 3 days and then remained at the same level until the 12th day. In ovaries from controls, protease activity decreased from day 6 until day 9 and then remained constant until day 12. Protease activity of petals did not differ significantly between the ethylene-treated and control flowers; it was constant until day 6 and then increased steadily until day 12. Differences between ethylene-treated and control flowers were visible immediately after treatment (day 1) and until day 3, as the sepals of the ethylene-treated flowers reflexed. Later (day 6), this difference disappeared as the sepals of the control flowers also reflexed. On day 9 the outer petals of the ethylene-treated flowers were bluish, whereas the controls were not. There were no other differences in development between treated and control flowers.
Abstract
There was an accumulation of total free amino acids (calculated as the sum of the individual amino acids) in corollas from cut ‘Sonia’ roses (Rosa hybrida) stored at 2C (cold-stored flowers) but not in those kept at 20C (control flowers). In cold-stored flowers, senescence was retarded, as indicated by only a slight opening of the corolla and no subsequent petal abscission. Hence, there appeared to be no direct correlation between senescence of cut roses and accumulation of total amino acids in corollas; neither was there a relationship between individual or total free amino acids and protease activity in the corollas from either cold-stored or control flowers. Changes in the contents of all free amino acids, except alanine and lysine, were affected by cold storage. The effect on aspartic acid was statistically significant, but not spectacular. Cold storage delayed the decrease in contents of glutamic acid, asparagine, tyrosine, glycine, leucine, isoleucine and valine, and prevented accumulation of phenylalanine, proline, and histidine. We detected only one theoretically expected interconversion between two amino acids; i.e., glutamic acid to proline, that occurred in corollas from control flowers during the first 6 days of storage. We suggest that the patterns of changes in the contents of tyrosine, valine, isoleucine (or isoleucine plus leucine), and phenylalanine are not restricted to the cultivar Sonia.