Alonso J M, Ecker J R
the Plant Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
Sci STKE. 2001 Feb 20;2001(70):re1. doi: 10.1126/stke.2001.70.re1.
To dissect the web of signals that control plant growth, it is important to understand how the individual components of the pathway are modulated. Ethylene is a plant hormone involved in a large number of developmental processes. Biochemical and genetic approaches have provided a detailed view of the biosynthetic and signal transduction pathways of this hormone in the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The effects of several hormones and of developmental changes on the regulation of the key enzymes of ethylene biosynthesis, ACC synthase and ACC oxidase, serve as a clear example of interaction between signals in the generation of complex responses. We now have a picture of how ethylene is sensed by the ethylene receptors and how the signal is further transduced to the nucleus. Although some of the ethylene receptors show a tissue-specific pattern of expression, little is known about the regulation of the components of the ethylene transduction cascade by other hormones or developmental factors. Once the ethylene signal reaches the nucleus, it activates a transcriptional cascade that results in changes in the expression of a number of genes. We describe some of the results that suggest an interaction at the transcriptional level between ethylene, other hormones, and stress signals.
为了解析控制植物生长的信号网络，了解该途径的各个组成部分是如何被调控的非常重要。乙烯是一种参与大量发育过程的植物激素。生化和遗传学方法已经详细揭示了在模式植物拟南芥中这种激素的生物合成和信号转导途径。几种激素以及发育变化对乙烯生物合成关键酶——ACC合酶和ACC氧化酶的调控作用，清晰地展示了在复杂反应产生过程中信号之间的相互作用。现在我们已经了解乙烯是如何被乙烯受体感知以及信号是如何进一步传递到细胞核的。尽管一些乙烯受体呈现出组织特异性的表达模式，但对于乙烯转导级联反应的组成部分如何被其他激素或发育因子调控却知之甚少。一旦乙烯信号到达细胞核，它就会激活一个转录级联反应，导致许多基因的表达发生变化。我们描述了一些结果，这些结果表明乙烯、其他激素和胁迫信号在转录水平上存在相互作用。
