The transcript abundance of an expansin gene in ripe sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) fruit is negatively regulated by ethylene.

After harvest, mature fruit of sapodilla (Manilkara zapota van Royen) exhibit rapid softening. The decrease in fruit firmness was hastened by ethylene and delayed by 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). Two genes encoding expansins (called MzEXP1 and MzEXP2) were isolated. In both cultivars studied (Makok-Yai and Kra-Suay), MzEXP1 was transiently expressed early during fruit development on the plant. This suggests that it is involved in cell wall loosening during early fruit growth. In cv. Makok-Yai, MzEXP2 was expressed between 1 day before harvest and day 4 after harvest. In cv. Kra-Suay, the expression of MzEXP2 started 8 weeks before the normal harvest stage, and ended on day 3 after harvest. When the fruit of both cultivars was treated with ethylene (50 µL L for 20 h at 25°C) just after harvest, the expression of MzEXP2 became undetectable. After treatment with 1-MCP MzEXP2 mRNA was highly abundant until day 5 after harvest, when in controls the transcript abundance had become undetectable. The onset of MzEXP2 expression seems not regulated by ethylene, as the concomitant ethylene levels are very low. The data strongly indicate that the decrease of MzEXP2 transcript abundance is due to ethylene production by the fruit, which is by then high. The expression of MzEXP2 ceased, both in controls and in ethylene-treated material, when the fruit had reached a rather low threshold firmness. The data suggest that the protein has a supporting and cooperative role in fruit softening.