title: Producing the Ethylene Signal: Regulation and Diversification of Ethylene Biosynthetic Enzymes.
abstract: Strictly controlled production of ethylene gas lies upstream of the signaling activities of this crucial regulator throughout the plant life cycle. Although the biosynthetic pathway is enzymatically simple, the regulatory circuits that modulate signal production are fine tuned to allow integration of responses to environmental and intrinsic cues. Recently identified posttranslational mechanisms that control ethylene production converge on one family of biosynthetic enzymes and overlay several independent reversible phosphorylation events and distinct mediators of ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation. Although the core pathway is conserved throughout seed plants, these posttranslational regulatory mechanisms may represent evolutionarily recent innovations. The evolutionary origins of the pathway and its regulators are not yet clear; outside the seed plants, numerous biochemical and phylogenetic questions remain to be addressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912.
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Booker
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 alison_delong@brown.edu.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: DeLong
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways; D004798:Enzymes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010944:Plants / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes; D005030:Ethylenes; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; D010940:Plant Proteins; C036216:ethylene