Resistant and tasty fruits - always!

What every producer, trader and consumer of tropical fruits aspires to can, in the near future, be achieved. Work led by professor Franco Lajolo, from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of São Paulo (FCF-USP), is paving the way for the development of new fruit conservation technologies based on the understanding of their ripening mechanisms. Advances in this area of ​​knowledge will make it possible to reduce post-harvest losses and offer the end consumer a better, more nutritious, sweet and firm product.

The research, focused on products of high commercial value in Brazil - bananas, papayas and mangos - is so important in terms of innovation and social impact that it won the 2016 Péter Murányi Prize - Food, worth R$200. "The work won among more than 90 entries; and was screened by a highly competent Scientific Technical Committee", said Zilda Vera Murányi Kiss, president of the Foundation that organizes the award. He ended up being chosen among three finalists by a jury made up of 27 members, who met last Wednesday afternoon (17/02), in the Board Room of the Business-School Integration Center (CIEE), in São Paulo. "The work has a great social impact, as it makes it possible to reduce the rates of post-harvest fruit losses, maintaining a high quality standard", she highlighted.

Scientific advancement - The merit of the work was to show what the metabolic pathways are for the transformation of starch into sugar (the enzymes involved and their control) and to identify the enzymes that act on the degradation of the cell wall, that is, on the texture of the fruit. In the end, it was concluded that the changes depend on the synthesis of enzymes, the expression of specific genes in certain post-harvest periods and hormones, such as ethylene and auxins. What's more: it was discovered that the speed of transformation varies depending on the cultivar.

"We identified a variety with greater resistance to cold - an important factor to guarantee the quality of the product during long-distance transport", says the research coordinator, prof. Lajolo, who is also a member of the Food Research Center (FoRC - FoodResearch Center) - one of the centers of excellence supported by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp).

The work of the prof. Lajolo, entitled "Molecular bases of post-harvest transformations and fruit quality", was carried out together with professors Beatriz Rosana Cordenunsi and João Roberto Oliveira do Nascimento, both from FCF-USP. The work, within the scope of the Péter Murányi Prize, competed with two important finalists: Embrapa Instrumentação Agropecuária and the Federal University of Goiás.

Valuing science - This is the fourth time that the University of São Paulo has won the Péter Murányi Prize, since the award was launched in 2002. Since then, more than R$2 million has been awarded in prizes to researchers and institutions whose work has stood out as innovations that can improve the quality of life in developing countries. "This was my father's wish, materialized with the creation of the Péter Murányi Foundation after his death", says the president of the Foundation.