Both PAL, an encoding enzyme responsible for the synthesis of various phenolic compounds, and ANS, an encoding enzyme in the anthocyanin pathway

utilising PAL products ( Almeida et al., 2007), had low transcript accumulation during the first developmental stages, reached a maximum transcript accumulation during stage 4, and had a decline during stage 5 ( Fig. 2A and B). The observed rise in total phenolics during stage 3 was accompanied by an increase in transcript accumulation of PAL, as well as, the increase in total anthocyanin content during stage 3 was accompanied by an increase in transcript accumulation of PAL and ANS. l-Ascorbic acid levels also

increased significantly (P ⩽ 0.05) during the fruit BMS 387032 development, going from 22.1 mg 100 g−1 during stage 1 to 42.0 mg 100 g−1 during stage 5 ( Table 2). This increase was associated with transcript accumulation of LGalDH and GLDH, involved in ascorbic acid biosynthesis, that increased over time reaching a maximum accumulation during stage 5 ( Fig. 2C and D). LGalDH and GLDH encode enzymes that can also utilise degradation products derived from the action of PL, PME, PG, and β-Gal as substrate, constituting a secondary Dabrafenib order route to ascorbic acid production. This explains, at least in part, the rise in ascorbic acid concentration during maturation ( Table 2). Intriguingly the increase in ascorbic acid content over time was inversely correlated with fruit antioxidant capacity. When evaluating

the content of individual phenolic Acyl CoA dehydrogenase compounds, only gallic, ρ-hydroxybenzoic, and ρ-coumaric acid increased significantly (P ⩽ 0.05) with fruit development. Gallic acid was not detected during stage 1, but was the predominant phenolic compound during stage 5, possibly due to hydrolysis of soluble tannins releasing gallic acid. Ferulic and caffeic acid, (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin, quercetin, and kaempferol contents declined with development ( Table 3). Individual phenolic compounds evaluated here made up 10% of total phenolics during stage 1, and 47% during stage 5. Differences in the levels of phenolic compounds could be attributed to the presence of other phenolic compounds belonging to subgroups not investigated or not detected by the analytical method employed here. Russell et al. (2009) found higher levels of gallic acid, followed by ρ-coumaric acid, ρ-hydroxybenzoic, caffeic acid and ferulic acid, in strawberry cv. Elsanta, similar to the results observed here. Antioxidant potential had a significant (P ⩽ 0.05) reduction during strawberry development ( Table 2), along with the decrease in (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin, quercetin, and kaempferol contents ( Table 3).