中文摘要：

软化是果实成熟的一个重要标志,果实软化是由细胞壁降解酶促进细胞壁物质的降解,从而引起细胞壁超微结构发生变化所致.细胞壁降解酶活性的升高受基因的调控,采后生物技术为研究果实成熟软化提供了新的途径.反义基因技术证明,细胞壁降解酶基因的任何一种表达被抑制,果实都能够正常软化,表明果实的软化有其它因子的参与.文章就细胞壁降解酶在果实软化过程中的作用及其调控的研究进展进行了综述.

英文摘要：

Softening is an important feature of fruits during ripening. It is closely related to the changes in cell wall ultra-structure resulted from the degradation of cell wall components, which are brought about by the action of cell wall-degrading enzymes. The increases of enzymatic activity of cell wall-degrading enzymes were regulated by genes. Thus the research on post-harvest biotechnology provided new ways to study the fruit ripening and softening. Anti-sense RNA transgenic fruits showed that the fruits softened normally when gene expression in each of these enzymes was inhibited, which indicated that other factors may attribute to fruit softening. The role of cell wall-degrading enzymes in fruit softening and their regulation were reviewed in this paper.