From Ripening Banana Fruit. Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone which regulates many physiological processes of plant growth and development. It is found that there is a multigene family of ACC synthase to control ripening process in plants. Banana fruits are, at present, the staple food for nearly 400 million people in the developing world.
Banana is also a typical climacteric fruit.
Therefore, it appeared to be possible to extend the storage life of banana fruit by inhibiting ethylene biosynthesis using antisense technique. In this study, a cDNA clone, designated as MaACS, encoding ACC synthase was isolated by screening the cDNA library using a PCR-amplified DNA fragment as a homologous hybridization probe. Sequence analysis of this new cDNA revealed that MaACS was 1675 bp long, and contained one open reading frame encoding a single polypeptide of 486 amino acids. Northern blot analysis revealed that a mRNA of 1.8 kb length corresponding to MaACS accumulated in the tissues of ripening banana fruit. Musa acuminata AAA group, cv.