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JXB Advance Access published online on June 18, 2003
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erg199
© 2003 by Oxford University Press
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Received February 7, 2003; accepted April 25, 2003
© 2003 Society for Experimental Biology

RESEARCH PAPER

Significance of skin flavonoids for UV-B-protection in apple fruits

Alexei Solovchenko 1 and Michaela Schmitz-Eiberger 2*

1 Department of Physiology of Microorganisms, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, GSP-2 Moscow 119992, Russia
2 Department of Horticulture, Bonn University, Auf dem Hügel 6, D-53121 Bonn, Germany

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: schmitz.micha{at}uni-bonn.de.


  Abstract

An attempt has been made to assess the UV-B-protective capacity of phenolic compounds accumulated in superficial structures of plants using apple fruit as a model. Two apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) cultivars (Braeburn and Granny Smith) differing in response to high fluxes of solar radiation were selected and exposed to increasing doses of UV-B radiation. The extent of UV-B-induced damage to photosystem II of apple skin correlated with its quercetin glycoside (but not anthocyanin) content. Granny Smith apples did not demonstrate a pronounced response to high sunlight in terms of the accumulation of phenolic substances in the skin and exhibited similar patterns of Fo, Fm, and Fv/Fm changes in the course of UV-B irradiation both on sun-exposed and shaded surfaces of a fruit. Unlike Granny Smith, Braeburn fruits were characterized by a significant accumulation of quercetin glycosides in sun-exposed skin, however, shaded skin contained these compounds in similar amounts to those in Granny Smith. Accordingly, photosystem II in sun-exposed skin of Braeburn apples was resistant to high doses of UV-B radiation (up to 97 kJ m-2), whereas the susceptibility of the photosynthetic apparatus in shaded skin of Braeburn to UV-B-induced damage was much higher and similar to that of both sun-exposed and shaded skin of Granny Smith fruits. Anthocyanins, at least in the amounts found in Braeburn, did not show an additional effect in UV-B protection.

Key words: Apple, phenolic compounds, photosystem II, protection, UV-B radiation.


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