Histological and biophysical changes of cassava roots during retting, a key step of fufu processing.

BACKGROUND: Retting is a key step of cassava processing into widely consumed foods (fufu, chikwangue, miondo and bobolo) in sub-Saharan Africa. For some populations, retting ability is a major quality criterion that drives the adoption of new cassava varieties. Despite this importance, the physiological basis associated with this process remains poorly understood, and should lead to improved screening tools for breeding. Eight cassava varieties contrasting in retting ability properties were used in the present study. Roots and soaking water were sampled during retting and characterized at both histological and biochemical levels. RESULTS: Histological data highlighted the degradation of root cell wall during retting. The average pH of soaking water decreased from 5.94 to 4.31 and the average simple sugars decreased from 0.18 to 0 g L-1 , whereas the organic acids increased up to 5.61 g L-1 . In roots tissue, simple sugars and organic acid contents decreased from 22.9 to 0 g kg-1 and from 80 to 0 g kg-1 , respectively. The total pectin content of roots among varieties at harvest was similar, and decreased during the retting process. Overall, there was a negative correlation between total pectins content and root softening, although this did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Major histological and biochemical changes occurred during cassava root retting, with some of them associated with the process. Retting affected starch pasting properties more than starch content. Although this process is characterized by root softening and degradation of cell wall structure, the present study strongly suggested that pectin is not the only cell wall component involved in these changes. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Seed germination, morphology and fruit phenology insight of Cylicomorpha solmsii (Urb.) Urb: a step towards sustainable restoration planning.

Cylicomorpha solmsii (Urb.) Urb (Caricaceae) is a wild relative of domesticated Carica papaya native to the humid tropical forest of Cameroon. C. solmsii is becoming extinct due to rapid urbanization of its habitat. There is currently no restoration planning, no available data on seed germination, details on morphological description and fruit phenology. We investigated the effects of light and soil on seed germination, updated its morphological description and provided cues of its fruit phenology. In two series of experiments, a germination test was first conducted under light and dark conditions with three seed pre-treatments (scarification, drying and cold). Secondly, pre-treated seeds were sown in native soils of C. solmsii habitat collected at Eloumden I and II, two ex-situ and mixtures soil with sand. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected on different part of the plant and analyzed using R package version 4.3.2. Our findings showed that C. solmsii seeds can germinate only under light. The seeds manifested a physiological embryonic dormancy. The native soils showed the highest germination percentage and seedling establishment. The dioicy of C. solmsii was clearly described with incomplete staminate and pistillate unisexual flower whorls. C. solmsii was observed to produce fruits throughout the year at varying intensity. This information is a vital cue to species restoration and policy makers towards C. solmsii conservation.

Functional characterization of SlscADH1, a fruit-ripening-associated short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase of tomato.

A tomato short-chain dehydrogenase-reductase (SlscADH1) is preferentially expressed in fruit with a maximum expression at the breaker stage while expression in roots, stems, leaves and flowers is very weak. It represents a potential candidate for the formation of aroma volatiles by interconverting alcohols and aldehydes. The SlscADH1 recombinant protein produced in Escherichia coli exhibited dehydrogenase-reductase activity towards several volatile compounds present in tomato flavour with a strong preference for the NAD/NADH co-factors. The strongest activity was observed for the reduction of hexanal (K(m)=0.175mM) and phenylacetaldehyde (K(m)=0.375mM) in the presence of NADH. The oxidation process of hexanol and 1-phenylethanol was much less efficient (K(m)s of 2.9 and 23.0mM, respectively), indicating that the enzyme preferentially acts as a reductase. However activity was observed only for hexanal, phenylacetaldehyde, (E)-2-hexenal and acetaldehyde and the corresponding alcohols. No activity could be detected for other aroma volatiles important for tomato flavour, such as methyl-butanol/methyl-butanal, 5-methyl-6-hepten-2-one/5-methyl-6-hepten-2-ol, citronellal/citronellol, neral/nerol, geraniol. In order to assess the function of the SlscADH1 gene, transgenic plants have been generated using the technique of RNA interference (RNAi). Constitutive down-regulation using the 35S promoter resulted in the generation of dwarf plants, indicating that the SlscADH1 gene, although weakly expressed in vegetative tissues, had a function in regulating plant development. Fruit-specific down-regulation using the 2A11 promoter had no morphogenetic effect and did not alter the aldehyde/alcohol balance of the volatiles compounds produced by the fruit. Nevertheless, SlscADH1-inhibited fruit unexpectedly accumulated higher concentrations of C5 and C6 volatile compounds of the lipoxygenase pathway, possibly as an indirect effect of the suppression of SlscADH1 on the catabolism of phospholipids and/or integrity of membranes.