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GCSE Biology · key term
The changes through which a fruit becomes ready for its seeds to be dispersed, often including changes in colour, texture and smell.
Used by OCR
Specification B3.2h · Paper 1 (Foundation), Paper 3 (Higher)
Revise: Effects of plant hormonesEthene is unusual because it is a gas. It is produced naturally by plant tissues, particularly ripening fruit, and activates further ripening. During ripening, fruits commonly change in properties such as colour, texture and smell.
Paper 1 (Foundation), Paper 2 (Foundation), Paper 3 (Higher), Paper 4 (Higher)
The set of changes through which a fruit becomes ready for seed dispersal and, in many cases, ready to eat.
Revise: Gibberellins and EthenePlants must time important events such as germination, flowering, fruit ripening and leaf fall. They coordinate these changes using plant hormones: chemical signals that affect the activity of plant cells. A hormone does not have just one universal effect.
Link each hormone to a named effect rather than writing only that it ‘controls growth’: auxins promote cell enlargement, gibberellins promote germination and stem growth, and ethene promotes fruit ripening.
In an investigation of ripening, identify how ripeness was judged and name control variables such as fruit type, starting ripeness, temperature, time and container size.
For each effect, name the hormone and then state the plant response: for example, gibberellins → breaking seed dormancy and germination; ethene → fruit ripening.
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