Hua J, Sakai H, Nourizadeh S, Chen Q G, Bleecker A B, Ecker J R, Meyerowitz E M
Division of Biology, 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Plant Cell. 1998 Aug;10(8):1321-32. doi: 10.1105/tpc.10.8.1321.
The Arabidopsis ethylene receptor gene ETR1 and two related genes, ERS1 and ETR2, were identified previously. These three genes encode proteins homologous to the two-component regulators that are widely used for environment sensing in bacteria. Mutations in these genes confer ethylene insensitivity to wild-type plants. Here, we identified two Arabidopsis genes, EIN4 and ERS2, by cross-hybridizing them with ETR2. Sequence analysis showed that they are more closely related to ETR2 than they are to ETR1 or ERS1. EIN4 previously was isolated as a dominant ethylene-insensitive mutant. ERS2 also conferred dominant ethylene insensitivity when certain mutations were introduced into it. Double mutant analysis indicated that ERS2, similar to ETR1, ETR2, ERS1, and EIN4, acts upstream of CTR1. Therefore, EIN4 and ERS2, along with ETR1, ETR2, and ERS1, are members of the ethylene receptor-related gene family of Arabidopsis. RNA expression patterns of members of this gene family suggest that they might have distinct as well as redundant functions in ethylene perception.
拟南芥乙烯受体基因ETR1以及两个相关基因ERS1和ETR2先前已被鉴定出来。这三个基因编码的蛋白质与细菌中广泛用于环境感知的双组分调节因子同源。这些基因的突变使野生型植物对乙烯不敏感。在此，我们通过将它们与ETR2进行交叉杂交鉴定出了两个拟南芥基因EIN4和ERS2。序列分析表明，它们与ETR2的关系比与ETR1或ERS1的关系更为密切。EIN4先前作为显性乙烯不敏感突变体被分离出来。当向ERS2引入某些突变时，它也表现出显性乙烯不敏感性。双突变分析表明，与ETR1、ETR2、ERS1和EIN4类似，ERS2在CTR1的上游起作用。因此，EIN4和ERS2与ETR1、ETR2和ERS1一起，是拟南芥乙烯受体相关基因家族的成员。该基因家族成员的RNA表达模式表明，它们在乙烯感知中可能具有不同但又冗余的功能。
