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Abstract BACKGROUND Huanghua pear will lose its firmness quickly during postharvest storage at ambient temperature, and hence has limited storage and marketing potential. In this study, Huanghua pears treated with paper containing 0 (control) or 0.9 μL L −1 1‐methylcyclopropene (1‐ MCP ) for 12 h, and then stored at (25 ± 1) °C for 30 days, were investigated for the effect on fruit firmness, cell wall composition and activities of cell wall‐degrading enzymes. RESULTS Huanghua pears without 1‐ MCP treatment softened rapidly during room‐temperature storage and cell wall composition analyses showed an increase in water‐soluble pectin ( WSP ) and decreases in cell wall materials ( CWM ) and cell wall components such as Na 2 CO 3 ‐soluble pectin ( NSP ), cellulose and hemicellulose. In contrast, the 1‐ MCP ‐treated fruits maintained higher firmness than the control; also, the treatment prevented the formation of WSP and reduced the degradation of CWM and cell wall components including NSP , cellulose and hemicellulose. 1‐ MCP treatment also significantly lowered the activities of cell wall‐degrading enzymes such as pectinesterase, polygalacturonase, β‐galactosidase and cellulase during storage. CONCLUSION 1‐ MCP treatment can slow down the softening of Huanghua pears through reducing cell wall‐degrading enzyme activities and hence maintain the integrity of the cell wall structure. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry
Chen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.