The plant hormone ethylene plays a pivotal role in virtually every aspect of plant development, including vegetative growth, fruit ripening, senescence, and abscission. Moreover, it acts as a primary defense signal during plant stress. Being a volatile, its immediate biosynthetic precursor, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, ACC, is generally employed as a tool to provoke ethylene responses. However, several reports propose a role for ACC in parallel or independently of ethylene signaling. In this study, pharmacological experiments with ethylene biosynthesis and signaling inhibitors, 2-aminoisobutyric acid and 1-methylcyclopropene, as well as mutant analyses demonstrate ACC-specific but ethylene-independent growth responses in both dark- and light-grown Arabidopsis seedlings. Detection of ethylene emanation in ethylene-deficient seedlings by means of laser-based photoacoustic spectroscopy further supports a signaling role for ACC. In view of these results, future studies employing ACC as a proxy for ethylene should consider ethylene-independent effects as well. The use of multiple knockout lines of ethylene biosynthesis genes will aid in the elucidation of the physiological roles of ACC as a signaling molecule in addition to its function as an ethylene precursor.

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abscission signaling hormone ethylene biosynthesis plant development ethyleneindependent vegetative growth fruit ripening senescence laserbased photoacoustic

Lisa Vanderstraeten,Thomas Depaepe,Sophie Bertrand,Dominique Van Der Straeten,.The Ethylene Precursor ACC Affects Early Vegetative Development Independently of Ethylene Signaling. 10 (),.

Lisa Vanderstraeten,Thomas Depaepe,Sophie Bertrand,Dominique Van Der Straeten,"The Ethylene Precursor ACC Affects Early Vegetative Development Independently of Ethylene Signaling" 10

Lisa Vanderstraeten,Thomas Depaepe,Sophie Bertrand,Dominique Van Der Straeten,"The Ethylene Precursor ACC Affects Early Vegetative Development Independently of Ethylene Signaling"