Sugar and Acid Homeostasis in Citrus Fruit
Authors: Blumwald Eduardo , Sadka Avi 
Published: March 2022

Citrus fruit quality standards have been determined empirically, depending on species and on the particular growing regions. In general, the TSS (total soluble solids) to total acidity (TA) ratio determines whether citrus fruit can be marketed. Soluble sugars account for most of the TSS during harvest while TA is determined almost solely by the citric acid content, which reaches levels of 1-5% by weight in many cultivated varieties. Acid and sugar homeostasis in the fruit is critical for the management of existing cultivars, the development of new cultivars, the improvement of pre- and post-harvest strategies and the control of fruit quality and disorders. The current proposal (a continuation of a previous proposal) aimed at: (1) completing the citrus fruit proteome and metabolome, and establish a citrus fruit functional database, (2) further characterization of the control of fruit acidity by studying the regulation of key steps affecting citrate metabolism, and determine the fate of citrate during acid decline stage, and (3) Studying acid and sugar homeostasis in citrus fruits by characterizing transport mechanisms across membranes. These aims were completed as the following: (1) Our initial efforts were aimed at the characterization and identification of citric acid transporters in citrus juice cells. The identification of citrate transporters at the vacuole of the citrus juice cell indicated that the steady-state citrate cytosolic concentration and the action of the cytosolic aconitase were key elements in establishing the pH homeostat in the cell that regulates the metabolic shift towards carbon usage in the fruit during the later stages of fruit development. We focused on the action of aconitase, the enzyme mediating the metabolic use of citric acid in the cells, and identified processes that control carbon fluxes in developing citrus fruits that control the fruit acid load; (2) The regulation of aconitase, catalyzing a key step in citrate metabolism, was further characterized by using two inhibitors, citramalte and oxalomalte. These compounds significantly increased citrate content and reduced the enzyme’s activity. Metabolite profiling and changes of amino-acid metabolizing enzymes in oxalomalate- treated cells suggested that the increase in citrate, caused by aconitase inhibition, induces amino acid synthesis and the GABA shunt, in accordance with the suggested fate of citrate during the acid decline stage in citrus fruit. (3) We have placed a considerable amount of time on the development of a citrus fruit proteome that will serve to identify all of the proteins in the juice cells and will also serve as an aid to the genomics efforts of the citrus research community (validating the annotation of the fruit genes and the different ESTs). Initially, we identified more than 2,500 specific fruit proteins and were able to assign a function to more than 2,100 proteins (Katz et al., 2007). We have now developed a novel Differential Quantitative LC-MS/MS Proteomics Methodology for the identification and quantitation of key biochemical pathways in fruits (Katz et al., 2010) and applied this methodology to identify determinants of key traits for fruit quality (Katz et al., 2011). We built “biosynthesis maps” that will aid in defining key pathways associated with the development of key fruit quality traits. In addition, we constructed iCitrus (http://wiki.bioinformatics.ucdavis.edu/index.php/ICitrus), a “functional database” that is essentially a web interface to a look-up table that allows users to use functional annotations in the web to identify poorly annotated citrus proteins. This resource will serve as a tool for growers and field extension specialists.