Biochemistry of fruit softening: an overview (2024)

PMCID: PMC3550369

Anurag Payasi, Nagendra Nath Mishra, Ana Lucia Soares Chaves, and Randhir Singh

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Abstract

Softening is a developmentally programmed ripening process, associated with biochemical changes in cell wall fractions involving hydrolytic processes resulting in breakdown of cell-wall polymers such as cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin etc. Various hydrolytic reactions are brought about by polygalacturonase, pectin methyl esterase, pectate lyase, rhamnogalacturonase, cellulase and β-galactosidase etc. Besides these enzymes, expansin protein also plays an important role in softening. Textural changes during ripening help in determining the shelf life of a fruit. An understanding of these changes would help in formulating procedures for controlling fruit softening vis-à-vis enhancing shelf life of fruits. In the present review an attempt has been made to coalesce recent findings on biochemistry of fruit softening.

Key words: Softening, shelf life, pectin, degradation

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