Regulating the Ripening Process

Abstract

Fleshy fruit development and ripening are complex processes involving numerous physiological and molecular changes that are unique to plants. Model plant systems such as Arabidopsis and tomato have provided numerous insights into ethylene synthesis and signal transduction and its involvement in fruit ripening. Various molecular and genetic tools in tomato, such as micro-arrays, DNA markers, mapping populations, and more recently, the tomato genome sequence, have allowed for rapid examination of fruit development and ripening. Numerous ripening mutants in tomato have provided important information on the ripening of fleshy fruits. Discovery of critical transcription factor genes such as RIN, CNR , and TAGL1 in tomato have begun to shed light on the regulatory mechanisms of ripening that operate upstream of ethylene. Advances in understanding the synthesis and accumulation of carotenoids, the contributions of ethylene and light signal transduction in addition to cell-wall metabolism alterations during fruit ripening offer novel ways to consider and understand ripening as a complex regulatory genetic and metabolic system which can be modified for human benefit.