Polygalacturonase (PG) is an important hydrolytic enzyme involved in pectin degradation during fruit softening. However, the roles of PG family members in fruit softening remain unclear. We identified 45 PpPG genes in the peach genome which are clustered into six subclasses. PpPGs consist of four to nine exons and three to eight introns, and the exon/intron structure is basically conserved in a...

Softening is a characteristic of fruit ripening caused by oxidative action. The oxidized degree of membrane lipids and proteins in relation to production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) of postharvest banana fruit during softening were investigated. Firmness as an indictor of softening of banana fruit was also measured. Banana fruit firmness decreased markedly after 4 days of storage, which in...

'Taishanzaoxia' fruit rapid softening and dehiscence during ripening stage and this process is very sensitive to endogenous ethylene. In this study, we cloned five ethylene signal transcription factors (ZMdEIL1, ZMdEIL2, ZMdEIL3, ZMdERF1 and ZMdERF2) and one functional gene, ZMdPG1, encoding polygalacturonase that could loose the cell connection which associated with fruit firmness decrease and...

To investigate the role of ethylene in peach fruit softening during ripening, stony hard peach fruit, in which ethylene production is suppressed during ripening, were treated with various concentrations of ethylene. There was no noticeable decrease in flesh firmness without ethylene treatment, while applied ethylene, in the range 0.1-100 microl l(-1), resulted in fruit softening. Furthermore, t...

The softening of fleshy fruits, such as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), during ripening is generally reported to result principally from disassembly of the primary cell wall and middle lamella. However, unsuccessful attempts to prolong fruit firmness by suppressing the expression of a range of wall-modifying proteins in transgenic tomato fruits do not support such a simple model. 'Delayed Fruit ...

In a globalized economy, the control of fruit ripening is of strategic importance because excessive softening limits shelf life. Efforts have been made to reduce fruit softening in transgenic tomato through the suppression of genes encoding cell wall-degrading proteins. However, these have met with very limited success. N-glycans are reported to play an important role during fruit ripening, alt...

Cell wall disassembly in ripening fruit is highly complex, involving the dismantling of multiple polysaccharide networks by diverse families of wall-modifying proteins. While it has been reported in several species that multiple members of each such family are expressed in the same fruit tissue, it is not clear whether this reflects functional redundancy, with protein isozymes from a single enz...

the main postharvest problems of persimmon in iran are severe softening and disease incidence on the fruits during storage. therefore, delay in softening and/or control of diseases result in the storage life extension of persimmon fruit. the strategy of induced disease resistance in plants by biotic and abiotic treatments is an attractive method for controlling diseases. salicylic acid (sa) is ...

The role of polygalacturonase (PG) in the development, ripening, and softening of fruit from two strawberry cultivars with different flesh firmness and softening characteristics was compared. Changes in PG activity and gene expression during development, ripening and softening were measured. The PG genes from each cultivar were cloned and analyzed, and were classified with other PG genes using ...

One of the principal changes that takes place in apples as they ripen on the tree and in storage is the softening of the flesh of the fruit. In recent years many studies have been made on the ripening and storage of apples (iO),^ and in these the softening of the fruit has been given major consideration. In general, it has been found that there is a gradual, though somewhat irregular, softening...