Open Access

ARTICLE

Coffea arabica var. Borbon Biochemical Response to Chitosan Oligosaccharides Foliar Exposure

Alexis Salazar-Navarro¹, Víctor Ruíz-Valdiviezo², José Joya-Dávila¹, Daniel González-Mendoza^1,*, Olivia Tzintzun-Camacho¹, Ulin Basilio-Cortes¹, Dagoberto Duran-Hernández¹, Henry López-Lopez¹, Onecimo Grimaldo-Juárez¹

1 Laboratory of Biotecnology, Instituto de Ciencias Agrícolas de la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (ICA-UABC), Nuevo León, 21705, Baja California, México
2 Department of Molecular Biology, Tecnológico Nacional de México, Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtla Gutierrez, Tuxtla Gutierrez, 29050, Chiapas, México

* Corresponding Author: Daniel González-Mendoza. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Plant Responses to Abiotic Stress Mechanisms)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(3), 641-655. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.062871

Received 30 December 2024; Accepted 20 February 2025; Issue published 31 March 2025

Abstract

The biochemical response of Coffea arabica var. Borbon to chitosan and chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) was evaluated in one-year-old plants under greenhouse conditions. COS solutions were synthesized through chemical and physical hydrolysis using acetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and microwave irradiation. The obtained COS had an average molecular weight (Mw) of 3549.90 ± 0.33 Daltons (Da), a deacetylation degree (DD) of 76.64 ± 1.12%, and a polymerization degree (PD) of 18.91 ± 0.0018. Solutions of chitosan and COS were applied to C. arabica var. Borbon at concentrations of 0.25, 0.5, and 1 wt%. The experimental design was conducted using a completely randomized design with four replications. The biochemical responses assessed included soluble protein content, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), chitinase, β-1,3-glucanase, peroxidase, catalase, and chlorophyll fluorescence. The application of COS demonstrated significant differences (α = 0.05) in protein concentration, with the activity of β-1,3-glucanase, chitinase, and catalase being 1.5, 7.5, and 3.9 times higher, respectively, while showing similar behavior to chitosan in PAL activity, both up to 4.4 times higher than the distilled water control and lower than chitosan in peroxidase activity. Treatments with chitosan yielded a higher photochemical efficiency of Photosystem II (PSII). The application of COS suggests a viable foliar alternative to active plant defense mechanisms without the risk of phytotoxicity.

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