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COMBINED EFFECTS OF PECTIC ENZYMES ON THE DEGRADATION OF PECTIN POLYSACCHARIDES OF BANANA FRUIT

GUIPING CHENG^{1, 2}, YUEMING JIANG², YULONG CHEN², SHAOYU YANG², SHENGGEN HE¹, HONG LIANG¹ AND XUEWU DUAN^2,*

Abstract: Pectin polysaccharide is one of the major components of the primary cellular wall in the middle lamella of plant tissues. The degradation of pectin polysaccharide contributes to fruit softening. In this study, water-soluble pectin (WSP) and acid-soluble pectin (ASP) were isolated from pulp tissues of banana fruit at various ripening stages, and combinations of the enzymes such as polygalcturonase (PG), pectin methylesterase (PME) and β-galactosidase (β-Gal) were used to investigate the effect on the degradation of WSP and ASP. PG promoted the degradation of pectin polysaccharides, especially in ASP. An enhanced effect of the degradation of WSP and ASP from various ripening banana fruit was observed in the presence of PME. In addition, β-Gal accelerated slightly the degradation of WSP and ASP in the presence of PG. Overall, PG, PME and β-Gal can coordinate to promote the degradation of pectin polysaccharides of banana fruit, resulting in fruit softening.

¹ College of Life Sciences, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, The People’s Republic of China.

²South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, The People’s Republic of China

*Corresponding author E-mail: xwduan@scbg.ac.cn; Tel: + 86 20 3725960; Fax: + 86 20 37252831