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Ethylene Responses in Seedling Growth and Development

  • Chapter
Plant Hormones

Abstract

The gaseous plant hormone ethylene is an olefin hydrocarbon produced by all plants. Despite its simple chemical structure it orchestrates a myriad of complex functions. Ethylene controls processes as diverse as germination, root hair development, root nodulation, senescence of organs (including fruit ripening), differential cell growth, abscission, stress responses and resistance to necrotrophic pathogens (1). It is known that ethylene is effective to induce biological responses at nanomolar concentrations and that its response only takes minutes to be induced. Due to the important nature of its signaling the production of this hormone is a tightly regulated process, controlled by both developmental signals and response to environmental stimuli. To further the understanding of ethylene signaling in plants we need to fully comprehend how the hormone is synthesized, perceived and signal is transduced.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, 92037, USA

    Ramlah B. Nehring & Joseph R. Ecker

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  1. Ramlah B. Nehring
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  2. Joseph R. Ecker
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Correspondence to Ramlah B. Nehring .

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Editors and Affiliations

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

    Peter J. Davies

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Nehring, R.B., Ecker, J.R. (2010). Ethylene Responses in Seedling Growth and Development. In: Davies, P.J. (eds) Plant Hormones. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2686-7_17

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