Hydrogen Sulfide Maintained the Good Appearance and Nutrition in Post-harvest Tomato Fruits by Antagonizing the Effect of Ethylene

Hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) could act as a versatile signaling molecule in delaying fruit ripening and senescence. Ethylene (C(2)H(4)) also plays a key role in climacteric fruit ripening, but little attention has been given to its interaction with H(2)S in modulating fruit ripening and senescence. To study the role of H(2)S treatment on the fruit quality and nutrient metabolism, tomato fruits at white mature stage were treated with ethylene and ethylene plus H(2)S. By comparing to C(2)H(4) treatment, we found that additional H(2)S significantly delayed the color change of tomato fruit, and maintained higher chlorophyll and lower flavonoids during storage. Moreover, H(2)S could inhibit the activity of protease, maintained higher levels of nutritional-related metabolites, such as anthocyanin, starch, soluble protein, ascorbic acid by comparing to C(2)H(4) treatment. Gene expression analysis showed that additional H(2)S attenuated the expression of beta-amylase encoding gene BAM3, UDP-glycosyltransferase encoding genes, ethylene-responsive transcription factor ERF003 and DOF22. Furthermore, principal component analysis suggested that starch, titratable acids, and ascorbic acid were important factors for affecting the tomato storage quality, and the correlation analysis further showed that H(2)S affected pigments metabolism and the transformation of macromolecular to small molecular metabolites. These results showed that additional H(2)S could maintain the better appearance and nutritional quality than C(2)H(4) treatment alone, and prolong the storage period of post-harvest tomato fruits.