Abstract
In the ripening of many fleshy fruits, cells become more easily separable and the tissue softens. Cellular cohesion depends on the properties of the major intercellular polysaccharide, pectin, and its cross-linkage by calcium ions. Conceptually, there are many ways in which cohesion could be lost and a subset of these would explain the increase in concentration of cold water soluble pectin which is observed in most, if not all softening fruits. Many fruits develop endo-polygalacturonase (PG) activity, and this is often regarded as responsible for both the production of soluble (degraded) pectin and the loss of cell cohesion.
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Knee, M. (1989). Ethylene and Polygalacturonase—What Else is Involved in Cell Separation in Ripening Fruit?. In: Osborne, D.J., Jackson, M.B. (eds) Cell Separation in Plants. NATO ASI Series, vol 35. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74161-6_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74161-6_14
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