Lettuce, spinach and more leafy greens become more palatable to consumers because they increase their concentration in simple sugars, when exposed to cold temperature. I would like to better understand (if this is correct) the physiology and ecology of this process. Thank You.
When plants are exposed to cold stress the photosynthetic level is downregualted leading to degradation of starch to its derivatives for backup.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2676748/.
Same as mentioned, at the first, we must be attended to Cold Resistance Mechanisms, (Chilling and freezing temperatures affect metabolic activities and can cause osmotic stress). After that, focusing on the activity of sugars and protein in cold conditions.
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/100/1/502#page
With respect
Thank you very much Muhammad and Mehdi for answering my questions and sharing the papers. Both of them were very interesting. The review article suggesting that sugars at cold temps turn on genes that will increase plants metabolic activities, whereas the sucrose article suggested the efficacy of this sugar to increase plants tolerance (hardiness) to low temps. I can see the implications of these studies on leafy vegetables like spinach, or lettuce to increase palatability and economic value if harvested after exposing these crops to a cold temperature regimen prior to harvesting time.
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