Wound induced ethylene production from excised muskmelon fruit tissue

Abstract

SummaryPrevious studies indicate that physical damage or wounding increases the preclimacteric production of ethylene in muskmelon fruit (Cucumis melo L., var. reticulatus Naud.) by inducing 1-aminocylopropane-l-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase and ACC oxidase. In our experiments, ethylene production increased in the cylinders of preclimacteric fruit tissue from an undetectable level to 125 nl g−1 h−1 within 24 h after excision but declined to less than 50 nl g−1 at 48 h. Tissues subsampled from the inner portion of the original cylinder never exceeded 50 nl g−1 h−1 unless incubated for an additional 24 to 48 h after removal from the original cylinder. In contrast to ethylene production, ACC increased throughout all tissues in the original cylinder during the initial 48 h incubation. Wound induced increases in ACC were unaffected by inhibiting endogenous ethylene production with cobalt. The temporal and spatial patterns of wound induced ethylene production in preclimacteric muskmelon fruits are apparently determined by changes in the tissue’s ability to convert ACC to ethylene rather than the presence of ACC.