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Journal of Integrative Agriculture
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PAL-mediated phenylpropanoid metabolism contributes to storage stability of postharvest Pleurotus eryngii under hot air treatment

Minru Du, Wenhao Yue, Lingdan Lian, Sidi Wu, Jie Wang#

Department of Bioengineering, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China

 Highlights 

Hot air (HA) treatment improves the quality stability of P. eryngii during storage.

HA treatment induces the activation of PAL to enhance phenylpropanoid metabolism.

PePAL2 positively regulates the phenylpropanoid metabolism.

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摘要  

苯丙烷代谢在食用菌采后贮藏品质中起着至关重要的作用。苯丙氨酸解氨酶(PAL)是苯丙烷代谢途径的限速酶,催化该途径的第一步反应。为探究PAL对杏鲍菇采后贮藏品质及苯丙烷代谢的影响,以新鲜杏鲍菇为试验材料,经40℃热空气HA处理30 min并于4℃贮藏12 d,每3 d取样测定其采后品质、苯丙烷代谢产物含量、关键酶活性及其基因表达;同时采用5 mmol L-1 AOPPPAL抑制剂)对杏鲍菇进行处理,以揭示PAL对其采后贮藏稳定性的潜在调控机制。结果表明,HA处理有效抑制了杏鲍菇的失水褐变、电导率和丙二醛含量的增加,显著促进了苯丙氨酸、肉桂酸、对香豆酸、总酚、类黄酮和木质素等次级代谢产物积累提高了PAL、肉桂酸-4-羟化酶(cinnamate-4-hydroxylaseC4H)、4-香豆素辅酶A连接酶(4-coumarate coenzyme A ligase4CL)等关键酶的活性及其基因表达说明HA处理通过调控杏鲍菇贮藏期间苯丙烷代谢途径,进而有效维持其贮藏品质。然而,AOPP处理显著抑制HA处理诱导的苯丙烷代谢途径,导致杏鲍菇发生严重的品质劣变,暗示着PAL在提高杏鲍菇采后贮藏稳定性中的关键作用。为了进一步解析PAL功能,构建了杏鲍菇PePAL2基因的过表达和沉默表达载体,并成功转化到杏鲍菇菌丝中与野生型菌丝相比,过表达PePAL2显著上调了PAL下游基因PeC4H2Pe4CL1Pe4CL2Pe4CL3Pe4CL4PeCAD2PePODPeFLSPeF3H1PeF3H3PeF3H5的表达,增加了次级代谢物的含量,而沉默PePAL2则表现出相反的效果。以上结果表明HA处理能显著激活苯丙烷代谢途径关键酶活性和调控基因转录水平增加次级代谢产物含量,从而提高了杏鲍菇的贮藏稳定性,而PePAL2基因在此过程中发挥了关键作用本研究揭示了HA处理诱导PePAL2基因增强苯丙烷代谢,提高杏鲍菇采后品质的关键机制,为杏鲍菇采后关键基因的挖掘与利用提供数据基础。



Abstract  

Phenylpropanoid metabolism plays an essential role in storage stability of edible mushrooms. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) is the rate-limiting enzyme of this metabolic pathway. However, its special mechanisms in regulating postharvest quality of Pleurotus eryngii remain to be determined. This study aimed to investigate the roles of hot air (HA) and PAL inhibitor (AOPP) on the postharvest storage stability of P. eryngii to reveal the potential regulatory mechanism of PAL. Results showed that HA treatment inhibited the increase in water loss, browning, electrolyte leakage rate and malonaldehyde (MDA) content in P. eryngii. It also elevated the contents of phenylpropanoid metabolites and enhanced the activities and expression levels of the key enzymes in basic phenylpropanoid pathway. However, the activated phenylpropanoid metabolism induced by HA treatment was inhibited by AOPP treatment, leading to severe quality deterioration. To further analyze the role of PAL, the overexpression and silencing transformants of PePAL2, one of the PAL homologous genes in P. eryngii, were constructed. The overexpression of PePAL2 up-regulated the expression of genes downstream of PAL and boosted the contents of secondary metabolites, whereas PePAL2-silenced transformants showed the opposite effect, indicating that PePAL2 was crucial to the regulation of phenylpropanoid metabolism. Overall, the results suggested that HA treatment activated the phenylpropanoid metabolism through PePAL2, thereby improving the storage stability of P. eryngii

Keywords:  Pleurotus eryngii              PePAL2       Secondary metabolism              Postharvest quality  
Online: 08 December 2025  
Fund: 

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32302631); Provincial Rural Revitalization Strategy of Seed Industry Revitalization Project, China (2022-WPY-00-004)] and the Guangdong Provincial Special Fund for Rural Revitalization Strategy, China (grant number ZX2022041).

About author:  Minru Du, E-mail: duminru@scau.edu.cn #Corresponding Jie Wang E-mail: wjcasey@scau.edu.cn

Cite this article: 

Minru Du, Wenhao Yue, Lingdan Lian, Sidi Wu, Jie Wang. 2025. PAL-mediated phenylpropanoid metabolism contributes to storage stability of postharvest Pleurotus eryngii under hot air treatment. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, Doi:10.1016/j.jia.2025.12.012

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