Tomato Fruits (Solanaceae Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Feedback Mechanism in The Presence of Exogenous Ethylene under Prolonged Chilling Temperature Storage

Green mature and red ripe tomato ‘Roma VF’ fruits were stored in air-tight glass jars (1000ml), at 5o C for three weeks in dark. Grouped by similarity in color, three fruits were put into each jar. Half numbers of the jars were injected with 2ml of 1.25 ppm Ethylene gas, while the other half was used as control. Four random sets of samples, with three replications, were measured at 7 day intervals within three weeks. Upon measurement, jars were put into 20o C room temperature for 30 minutes, and then the upper atmosphere inside the jar was analyzed using gas chromatogram. The fruits physiology inside each jar were measured (skin and pericarp color and hardness, storing and peeling weight loss, dimension and transversal cross section, soluble solid content, and tritatable acidity). The result showed that red ripe tomato fruits ‘Roma VF’ stored in 5oC with exogenous ethylene have superior appearance, higher respiration production and higher senescent rate as compared to the control. The green mature fruits had the opposite effect when treated with ethylene, possibly due to an auto-induction mechanism in the synthesis process of the enzymes that are involved in ethylene biosynthesis controlled by the phyto-hormone ethylene. Thus, green mature fruits, when exposed to C2H4, revealed a negative feedback mechanism. Keywords: Tomato, C2H4, Cold Storage, Feedback Mechanism, Auto-Induction Mechanism