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Ethylene Biosynthesis

  • Chapter
Plant Hormones

Abstract

Ethylene, the simplest olefine, is present in nature at trace amounts. It is produced either chemically through the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons and biologically by almost all living organisms (2). Low levels of ethylene have been found in the expired gases of animals that are generated through a lipid peroxidation pathway. Many microbes among bacteria and fungi produce ethylene from two possible pathways: (i) a methionine and 2-oxo-4-methylthiobutyric acid (KMBA1) pathway in which ethylene is formed from KMBA by chemical reaction, and (ii) an α- ketoglutaric acid (KGA) pathway in which KGA is generated from glucose and many other substrates and an ethylene-forming enzyme having very divergent sequence with the enzyme responsible for the last step of ethylene biosynthesis in higher plants (4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique, UMR INRA-INP/ENSAT 990, Av de l’Agrobiologie, BP 107, F-31326, Castanet-Tolosan Cedex, France

    Jean-Claude Pech, Alain Latché & Mondher Bouzayen

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  1. Jean-Claude Pech
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  2. Alain Latché
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  3. Mondher Bouzayen
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Correspondence to Jean-Claude Pech .

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  1. Dept. Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Peter J. Davies

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Pech, JC., Latché, A., Bouzayen, M. (2010). Ethylene Biosynthesis. In: Davies, P.J. (eds) Plant Hormones. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2686-7_6

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