Xylose concentration in petals, a good indicator of remaining vase life in flowers

Flowers are often cultivated at considerable distance from the main consumer locations. This necessitates long term transport by truck, plane, boat or by combinations of these transport modes. At arrival it is often hard to judge the remaining quality or to estimate the remaining vase life. A method was developed to estimate the physiological age of the flower. Xylose concentrations in petals were shown to increase, in a temperature and time dependent manner, during storage of the flowers. The increase was observed in a great many cultivars, stored under different temperature scenarios. Also the expression of ?-xylosidase gene showed an increase during storage. This indicates that xylose is produced through the action of ?-xylosidase from structural carbohydrates (cell wall compounds). The produced xylose is apparently poorly metabolized and accumulates in the tissue. Petal xylose concentration showed a good correlation with the remaining vase life of both flowers in water and in a commercial flower food. Xylose can easily be determined in (hot water) petal extracts using a commercially available kit (Megazyme D-xylose assay kit). Xylose level in petals is proposed as a novel biomarker for storage history and an indirect predictor of the remaining vase life. SourcesXYLOSE CONCENTRATION IN PETALS PREDiCTS THE REMAINING VASE LIFE OF ROSESErnst J. Woltering*, Uulke van MeeterenWageningen Food and Biobased Res. PO Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands*ernst.woltering@wur.nlICH2018 Istanbul, 30th International Horticultural Congress, 12-16 August 2018, TurkeyPicture,?Xylose Assay Kit by Megazyme??