Isolation and Biophysical Study of Fruit CuticlesSubhasish Chatterjee 1, Sayantani Sarkar 1, Julia Oktawiec 1, Zhantong Mao 1, Olivia Niitsoo 2, Ruth E. Stark 1
1Department of Chemistry, City College of New York, City University of New York Graduate Center and Institute for Macromolecular Assemblies, 2Department of Chemical Engineering, City College of New York
Aerial plant organs are protected by the cuticle, a supramolecular biopolyester-wax assembly. We present protocols to monitor selective removal of epi- and intracuticular waxes from tomato fruit cuticles on molecular and micro scales by solid-state NMR and atomic force microscopy, respectively, and to assess the cross-linking capacity of engineered cuticular biopolyesters.
