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Article|22 Apr 2022|OPEN
Strawberry fruit FanCXE1 carboxylesterase is involved in the catabolism of volatile esters during the ripening process 
Félix Juan Martínez-Rivas1,2,4 , Rosario Blanco-Portales1 , Enriqueta Moyano1 , Saleh Alseekh2,4 , Jose Luis Caballero1 and Wilfried Schwab3 , Alisdair R. Fernie1 , Juan Muñoz-Blanco1 , , Francisco Javier Molina-Hidalgo,1 ,
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Córdoba, Edificio Severo Ochoa, Campus de Rabanales, E-14014 Córdoba. Spain
2Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany
3Biotechnology of Natural Products, Technische Universität München, Liesel-Beckmann-Str. 1, 85354 Freising, Germany
4Center for Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
*Corresponding author. E-mail: bb1mublj@uco.es,b52mohif@uco.es

Horticulture Research 9,
Article number: uhac095 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhac095
Views: 429

Received: 08 Oct 2021
Published online: 22 Apr 2022

Abstract

Volatile compounds produced during ripening of strawberry are key determinants of fruit quality and consumer preference. Strawberry volatiles are largely esters which are synthesized by alcohol acyltransferases (AATs) and degraded by carboxylesterases (CXEs). Although CXE activity can have a marked influence on volatile contents in ripe strawberry fruits, CXE function and regulation in them are poorly known. Here, we report the biochemical and functional characterization of the fruit receptacle-specific and ripening-related carboxylesterase FanCXE1. The expression of the corresponding gene was found to be antagonistically regulated by auxins and abscisic acid, key hormones that regulate fruit growth and ripening in strawberry. In vitro, FanCXE1 was able to hydrolyze artificial ester substrates similar to those produced by ripe strawberry fruits. Transient suppression of the FanCXE1 gene by RNAi resulted in an increase of important volatile esters such as methyl hexanoate, methyl butanoate and ethyl hexanoate as well as a decrease of the alcohols hexenol and linanool. The results of this work enhance our understanding of the molecular basis for volatile syntheses and facilitate production of better flavored strawberry fruits by introduction of the relevant alleles into common cultivars.