Roles of Abscisic Acid in Fruit Ripening

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant growth regulator, and it plays a variety of important roles throughout a plant’s life cycle. These roles include seed development and dormancy, plant response to environmental stresses, and fruit ripening. ABA concentration is very low in unripe fruit, but it increases as a fruit ripens, so it is therefore believed that ABA plays an important role in regulating the rate of fruit ripening. This article reviews the effect of ABA on ripening and quality of climacteric and non-climacteric fruits. The effects of ABA application on fruit ripening are subsequently discussed. Moreover, it is found that during fruit ripening, ABA also contributes to other functions, such as ethylene and respiratory metabolism, pigment and color changes, phenolic metabolism and nutritional contents, cell wall metabolism and fruit softening, and sugar and acid metabolism. These processes are all discussed as part of the relationship between ABA and fruit ripening, and the possibilities for its commercial application and use are highlighted.