Early signaling events as vital regulators of enzymatic browning in fresh-cut fruits and vegetables: a mini-review.

Abstract

Unlike intact fruits and vegetables, fresh-cut produce undergoes minimal processing operations that render it highly susceptible to quality deterioration. Among the adverse quality issues, surface browning represents a primary obstacle curtailing the post-processing shelf life and marketability of minimally processed commodities. While classical paradigms regarding fresh-cut browning predominantly center on downstream, polyphenol oxidase-mediated enzymatic reactions, this mini-review highlights the critical importance of early signaling events. These include wounding signal perception, ROS burst, Ca²⁺ signal transduction, rapid phytohormone response, and their subsequent crosstalk during the imitation of browning. Shifting the research paradigm toward a comprehensive upstream regulatory network will pave the way for engineering next-generation postharvest browning interventions.