Abscisic acid Antagonist 1 (AA1): A ray of hope for extending shelf life of leafy vegetables ($)

Abscisic acid (ABA) is one of the phytohormones that plays a pivotal role in a plant’s life from germination to senescence, and it drew additional attention of researchers owing to its involvement in abiotic stress. Leaf senescence is a natural phenomenon but if this process can be delayed by non-toxic means, it may have a great implication in agricultural products especially for leafy vegetables where post-harvest life is a critical factor. The work presented by Ye et al. offers a hope in this direction. The authors identified a broad-spectrum antagonist of ABA that they christened as ABA ANTAGONIST1 (AA1). The advantages associated with AA1 as compared to previously identified ABA antagonist are its (i) binding ability to a broad range of ABA binding receptor and (ii) cost effectiveness. It would be interesting to see how AA1 can be used in agriculture and to extend the shelf life of leafy vegetables because ABA is not the only hormone that causes senescence. AA1 also holds promise for researchers working on ABA-related work. (Summary by Sudhakar Srivastava) Plant Physiol. 10.​1104/​pp.​16.​01862