In this experiment, the mechanisms employed by β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) treatment to confer postharvest decay tolerance in strawberry fruit stored at 4 °C for 12 days were explored. Notably, BABA treatment at 25mM conferred remarkably decay tolerance in strawberry fruit which was accompanied by higher membrane integrity representing by lower malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation. Strawberry fruit treated with BABA exhibited remarkably higher cellular energy providing arising from higher H+-ATPase, Ca2+-ATPase, cytochrome c oxidase (CCO), and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) enzymes activity. Additionally, strawberry fruit treated with BABA exhibited remarkably higher superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) enzymes activity resulting in lower H2O2 accumulation. Also, higher phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) enzyme activity may be accountable for higher phenols and anthocyanins accumulation in strawberry fruit treated with BABA leading to superior DPPH scavenging capacity. Finally, strawberry fruit treated with BABA exhibited remarkably lower membrane degrading enzymes phospholipase D (PLD) and lipoxygenase (LOX) activity. According to our results, postharvest 25mM BABA applying may be considered as a favourable strategy not only for conferring decay tolerance of strawberry fruit by warranting sufficient cellular energy providing, triggering H2O2 scavenging enzymes activity, enhancing phenols and anthocyanins accumulation and hampering membrane degrading enzymes activity which not only are vital for preserving membrane integrity, but also are crucial for keeping nutritional quality of strawberry fruit during postharvest cold storage.
