The plant hormone ethylene is an important signal in plant growth responses to environmental cues. In vegetative growth, ethylene is generally considered as a regulator of cell expansion, but a role in the control of meristem growth has also been suggested based on pharmacological experiments and ethylene-overproducing mutants. In this study, we used transgenic ethylene-insensitive and ethylene...

Ethylene production in mung bean hypocotyls was greatly increased by treatment with 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), which was utilized as the ethylene precursor. Unlike auxin-stimulated ethylene production, ACC-dependent ethylene production was not inhibited by aminoethoxyvinylglycine, which is known to inhibit the conversion of S-adenosylmethionine to ACC. While the conversion of ...

Ethylene synthesis in vegetative tissues is thought to be controlled by indoleacetic acid (IAA). However, ethylene synthesis in the diageotropica (dgt) mutant of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) was much less sensitive to IAA than in the normal variety (VFN8). Yet, mechanical wounding stimulated ethylene production by the mutant. The dgt tomato provides an opportunity to study the regulat...

Mutations in the Arabidopsis ETHYLENE-INSENSITIVE3 (EIN3) gene severely limit a plant's response to the gaseous hormone ethylene. ein3 mutants show a loss of ethylene-mediated effects including gene expression, the triple response, cell growth inhibition, and accelerated senescence. EIN3 acts downstream of the histidine kinase ethylene receptor, ETR1, and the Raf-like kinase, CTR1. The EIN3 gen...

Senescence of carnation flowers is characterized by autocatalytic ethylene production from petals and subsequent wilting of the petals. Recent studies on the regulation of ethylene production and wilting in senescing carnation petals revealed that (1) petal senescence is triggered by ethylene evolved from the gynoecium during natural senescence, (2) ethylene production in the gynoecium is induc...

Use of Ethylene As described by Abeles (1973), interest in ethylene dates back to at least 1864, when Girarden reported that gas from gas lamps caused injuries and defoliation of trees. In 1901, Neljubov identified ethylene as a component of the illuminating gas. Crocker and Knight reported in 1908 that ethylene and illurninating gas induced same physiological responses in flowers. In 1912, Sie...

In the dark, etiolated seedlings display a long hypocotyl, the growth of which is rapidly inhibited when the seedlings are exposed to light. In contrast, the phytohormone ethylene prevents hypocotyl elongation in the dark but enhances its growth in the light. However, the mechanism by which light and ethylene signalling oppositely affect this process at the protein level is unclear. Here, we re...

The plant hormone ethylene is involved in the regulation of a number of physiological and developmental processes and its role as a regulator of flower senescence is of particular economic importance in floriculture. The present review focuses on genetic control of flower senescence, particularly at the level of ethylene perception. Research in a number of flowering plants has indicated that fl...

Multiple reports demonstrate associations between ethylene and sulfur metabolisms, however the details of these links have not yet been fully characterized; the links might be at the metabolic and the regulatory levels. First, sulfur-containing metabolite, methionine, is a precursor of ethylene and is a rate limiting metabolite for ethylene synthesis; the methionine cycle contributes to both su...

Ethylene signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana converges on the ETHYLENE-INSENSITIVE3 (EIN3)/EIN3-Like (EIL) transcription factors to induce various responses. EIN3 BINDING F-BOX1 (EBF1) and EBF2 were recently shown to function in ethylene perception by regulating EIN3/EIL turnover. In the absence of ethylene, EIN3 and possibly other EIL proteins are targeted for ubiquitination and subsequent degra...