The work aims to investigate the post-harvest preservation effects of nitric oxide-releasing chitosan nanoparticles (GSNO-CS NP) on sweet cherry. The test material, sweet cherry, was treated by chitosan (CS), S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) and GSNO-CS NP respectively to test the ethylene emission, lipoxygenase (LOX) activity, aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) content, aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO) activity, ACC synthase (ACS) activity, ACO gene and ACS gene expression levels, so as to explore the quality changes in duration of storage. Compared with control treatment, the experimental results indicated that all above of three treatments could reduce the LOX activity and restrained the content of ACC. Moreover, during the initial 20 days of storage process, the ACO activity, ACS activity, ACO gene and ACS gene expression levels were all inhibited, moreover, the GSNO-CS NP treatment showed obviously better preservation effect. In conclusion, CS, GSNO and GSNO-CS NP treatments of sweet cherry could reduce ethylene biosynthesis and maintain fruit quality during storage. Among them, the treatment effect of GSNO-CS NP is better than that of CS and GSNO separately.