Isoprenoid, Lipid, and Protein Contents in Intact Plastids Isolated from Mesocarp Cells of Traditional and High-Pigment Tomato Cultivars at Different Ripening Stages

This study reports quali-quantitative analyses on isoprenoids, phospholipids, neutral lipids, phytosterols, and proteins in purified plastids isolated from fresh fruits of traditional (Donald and Incas) and high-pigment (Kalvert and HLY-18) tomato cultivars at four ripening stages. In all of the investigated cultivars, lycopene, beta-catotene, lutein, and total carotenoids varied significantly during ripening. Chromoplasts of red-ripe tomato fruits of high-pigment cultivars accumulated twice as much as lycopene (307.6 and 319.2 mu g/mg of plastid proteins in Kalvert and HLY-18, respectively) than ordinary cultivars (178.6 and 151.7 mu g/mg of plastid proteins in Donald and Incas, respectively); differences in chlorophyll and a-tocopherol contents were also evidenced. Phospholipids and phytosterols increased during ripening, whereas triglycerides showed a general decrease. Regardless of the stage of ripening, palmitic acid was the major fatty acid in all cultivars (ranging from 35 to 52% of the total fatty acids), followed by stearic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and myristic acids, but their relative percentage was affected by ripening. Most of the bands detected on the SDS-PAGEs of plastid proteins were constantly present during chloroplast-to-chromoplast conversion, some others disappeared, and only one, with a molecular weight of similar to 41.6 kDa, was found to increase in intensity.