By IANS
New York : Researchers have attributed the browning of pears to restricted gas exchange inside their pulp, especially when stored under low oxygen conditions.
Researchers at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium suggested a computer model that can be used to improve long-term storage of fruit under controlled conditions.
Pears and other fleshy fruit are commercially stored under low oxygen conditions to extend their shelf life by nine months. If the oxygen concentration is too low, it is likely to result in internal browning, causing huge economic losses.
This disorder is related to the complex mechanisms of gas exchange, respiration and fermentation in fruit. However, further conclusions are unavailable due to the lack of reliable methods to measure gas concentrations inside the fruit.
The team, led by Bart Nicolaï, has developed a comprehensive computer model to predict oxygen concentration inside the pear.
The model incorporates equations for gas transport as well as for the respiratory metabolism. The researchers found that extremely low oxygen concentrations can occur in the core of the pear, which eventually may lead to cell death and browning.
While the model was developed for pears, the model is generic. Application to other fleshy fruit and plant organs is straightforward, but the tissue properties and the geometry will need to be measured, Nicolaï says.
The study has been published March issue of open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology.