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Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) fruit are climacteric and an increase in ethylene production is observed during fruit ripening. However, the relationship between ethylene and fruit softening is unclear, because peach fruit softening begins significantly earlier than the observed increase in ethylene production (Tonutti et al., 1996). The stony hard peach is an ideal mutant for studying the relationship between fruit softening and ethylene. In this mutant, the ripe fruit produces little ethylene and firm flesh is maintained during ripening, but exogenous ethylene induces a rapid loss of firmness (Haji et al., 2003), which accompanied by increases in both endo- PG and exo-PG activities (Hayama et al., 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]