A new idea for how anti-aging products delay ripening of fruit and wilting of flowers

Novel pathway can lead to new products:

In their paper, the researchers show that 1-MCP reacts with copper to give a highly reactive chemical intermediate. Called a carbene, the intermediate will react with essentially any other kind of chemical group in the area.

“Very few such intermediates are known, and it is mostly difficult to make them,” Pirrung said. “Based on the reaction of 1-MCP with copper, we discovered a very easy process to make a carbene. When the carbene is generated by the copper in the ethylene receptor, it is the receptor that reacts, creating the permanent linkage that prevents the receptor from perceiving ethylene.”

According to Pirrung, knowledge of a chemical reaction between 1-MCP and copper in ethylene receptors could help researchers design new compounds, such as non-gaseous compounds, that are capable of working as well as 1-MCP but are not as difficult to handle.

“Such compounds would enable much more widespread treatment of fruits, flowers and vegetables to prevent their spoiling,” he said.

Next in their research, Pirrung and his colleagues will study in more detail the chemical reaction between 1-MCP and plants’ copper-containing receptors.

Pirrung was joined in the study by Yunfan Zou of UCR; Anthony B. Bleecker and Brad M. Binder of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.; Yoshihisa Inoue and Norimitsu Sugawara of Osaka University, Japan; Fernando I. Rodriguez of BD Biosciences, Puerto Rico; and Takehiko Wada of Tohoku University, Japan.

The American Floral Endowment provided funding for the study.

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