= Ripening
<Ripening> is the coordinated set of developmental changes that brings a <fruit> toward its mature dispersal or eating state. Depending on the <fruit>, these changes can include altered pigmentation, softening, changes in <sugars> and <acids>, and the production of volatile compounds. They need not all occur at the same rate, so colour alone is an incomplete measure of <ripening>.
A particularly clear experiment established a role for <Ethylene> in <tomato> <ripening>. In 1991, <P. W. Oeller> and colleagues expressed <Antisense RNA> directed against <1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase>, an <enzyme> required for <Ethylene> production. <Ripening> was inhibited. Supplying <Ethylene> from outside the <plant> reversed that inhibition.<Reversible inhibition of tomato fruit senescence by antisense RNA by P. W. Oeller and others>[Science 254, pp. 437–439; abstract, antisense inhibition and rescue by supplied ethylene]{ref}
The intervention and rescue distinguish a regulating signal from a substance that merely accumulates while <ripening> happens. Suppressing production delays the process, while restoring the signal restores it. This establishes a causal role for <Ethylene> in that <tomato> system; the precise control of <ripening> must still be investigated for other <fruits>.
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