Everyone loves receiving a beautiful bouquet of saucy blossom , but check that they stay vivacious on their way to your vase is a intriguing job . A major cause for the deterioration of cut heyday is a gaseous molecule called ethene , a plant life hormone that causes flowers to wilt and fade and accelerate the drop of buds , petals , and leaves ( Figure 1 ) . In the floriculture industry , ethylene ’s consequence can importantly concentrate the quality and seniority of cut flowers during storage and transport . AFE - fund researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have been grueling at work trying to discover a elbow room to inhibit ethylene ’s adverse outcome , and late discoveries may offer promising alternatives to the methods presently in purpose .
Current Solutions and Their DrawbacksTwo treatment are commonly used to block ethylene ’s event : 1 - methylcyclopropene ( 1 - MCP ) and silver thiosulfate ( STS ) . They are very good , but both have their drawbacks . 1 - MCP is a reactive gas that is difficult to handle and requires enclosed areas for lotion . STS contains heavy metals , which raises environmental and disposal worry , peculiarly when used in large quantity . It is also light sensitive and must be prepared just prior to use , which can be inconvenient .
1 - MCP belongs to a family of compounds called cyclopropenes , which are potent ethylene inhibitors . ( The parent cyclopropene is a diminutive , triangular molecule made up of three carbon particle and four hydrogen atom . ) Cyclopropenes like 1 - MCP have a similar morphologic feature to ethene , which allows them to constipate to the ethylene sense organ situation in plant life cells without elicit the ethylene response , thus preventing ethylene from exercise its upshot on flora tissue . ( This is call in militant inhibition . )
Silver thiosulfate contains silver ions ( Ag+ ) that can alter ethylene receptors in plant . These receptors are protein located on the open of plant life cells , which are responsible for for sensing and responding to ethylene . By step in with these sensory receptor , the silver ions mental block ethylene from interacting with them . As a result , the industrial plant cells do not receive the ethylene signal , and the associated ethylene effect are not initiated . STS can also reduce the overall production of ethylene in plants by inhibiting the bodily process of the enzyme that is a herald to ethene .
The Search for Better Ethylene InhibitorsDr . Rasika Dias and his team at The University of Texas at Arlington are working to develop exploiter - favorable chemical substance that can be used in the cold shoulder blossom industry to countermine ethene ’s negative effects . They are also creating simple laboratory example of ethene binding sites in plants to test potential option to 1 - MCP more handily , and to well infer how 1 - MCP mould on ethene attach sites .
predict ResultsThe enquiry squad has synthesize several non - volatile 1 - MCP alternatives , which were tested for anti - ethylene action using fresh gillyflower . Some of these alternative displayed good water system solvability compared to 1 - MCP and were more commodious to use . Two of the tested cyclopropene alternatives showed fair anti - ethylene activity , while a third reactive carbon - pore reagent displayed very inviolable anti - ethylene activity . These exciting finding correspond a new approach to design ethene antagonist .
The squad also managed to create four isolable molecules that feature copper - ethylene bonds , which they trust can wait on as research lab models for the copper - ethylene tie site in plants ( figure 2 ) . Copper ion are essential for the role of ethene receptors in plants , which have copper centre . moreover , they were the first to isolate molecules that show copper - cyclopropene bonds , providing perceptiveness into the potential interaction between ethylene - binding sites in plants and 1 - MCP .
Industry ImpactThese uncovering have the potential drop to greatly do good the floriculture industry . The name 1 - MCP alternatives could be formulated into products for controlling ethylene ’s adverse effect on crop , while synthetic “ ethylene binding internet site ” models can speed up the screening of new anti - ethylene products . The structures of molecules that provide insights into 1 - MCP action in flora can also be utilitarian for developing better and more effective anti - ethylene reagents .
For more entropy : American Floral EndowmentTel . : +1 ( 703 ) 838-5211www.endowment.org
