Enzyme‐based kinetic modelling of ASC–GSH cycle during tomato fruit development reveals the importance of reducing power and ROS availability

The ascorbate-glutathione (ASC-GSH) cycle is at the heart of redox metabolism, linking the major redox buffers with central metabolism through the processing of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and pyridine nucleotide metabolism. Tomato fruit development is underpinned by changes in redox buffer contents and their associated enzyme capacities, but interactions between them remain unclear. Based on quantitative data obtained for the core redox metabolism, we built an enzyme-based kinetic model to calculate redox metabolite concentrations with their corresponding fluxes and control coefficients. Dynamic and associated regulations of the ASC-GSH cycle throughout the whole fruit development were analysed and pointed to a sequential metabolic control of redox fluxes by ASC synthesis, NAD(P)H and ROS availability depending on the developmental phase. Furthermore, we highlighted that monodehydroascorbate reductase and the availability of reducing power were found to be the main regulators of the redox state of ASC and GSH during fruit growth under optimal conditions. Our kinetic modelling approach indicated that tomato fruit development displayed growth phase-dependent redox metabolism linked with central metabolism via pyridine nucleotides and H₂ O₂ availability, while providing a new tool to the scientific community to investigate redox metabolism in fruits.