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From 2013.igem.org

{ "date" : "2013-09-09", "author" : "thomas-bruno", "title" : "Quantitative measurments on fruit", "content" : "Today me and bruno went to the faculty of Engineering in order to get some quantitative measures on our threated fruit. When we arrived, drs. Giovanna Ferrentino (from the Supercritic Fluid Lab) and dr. Andrea Dorigato (from the laboratory of polymers and compounds) that welcomed us. They helped us in doing two different test: a fruit compression strenght test and a fruit color measurment test.A compression test was used to determines maturation stage of kiwifruit and bananas. In this test the fruit is subjected to a cruching loat to measure the resistence of a sample to compression strength. The test allows to measure the strength necessary to break the material analized, as an indication of maturation stage. The results were then plotted.

It's well clear that fruit threated with cells tranformed with AraC-pBAD EFE were softer than the control fruit indicating a more advance state in the ripening process.
We did then a colorimetric assay in order to quantify the difference between the color of ripe and unripe kiwi's pulp. Using a spectrometer connected to a optic fiber, three parameters L* (lightness), a* (redness) and b* (yellowness) were measured. Kiwi treated with ethylene (BBa_1065001 induced, green) show a consistent shift toward a darker green shade respect to controls (no cells, blue and BBa_1065001 not induced, red) indicating the stage of kiwi ripening.", "tags" : "fruit" }