Fruits are a rich source of nutrients, minerals, and dietary fibers for both humans and animals. While the gaseous phytohormone ethylene is well-known for its role in controlling fruit ripening, there is growing evidence that ethylene also plays crucial roles in regulating other developmental processes of fruits, such as sex determination, fruit set, and fruit growth. In this review, we aim to revisit these findings from various species like cucumber, melon, tomato, rice, maize, and more. These studies not only enhance our understanding of ethylene’s function in fruits but also highlight the potential for manipulating ethylene to improve crops. Furthermore, we discuss recent studies that show the ethylene precursor ACC (1-AMINOCYCLOPROPANE-1-CARBOXYLATE), and the ethylene signaling components EIN2 (ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE2) and EIN3 (ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE3) have ethylene-independent function in specific conditions. This phenomenon, along with findings indicating that ethylene functions in a dosage-dependent manner in some species, suggesting that when studying ethylene function, we should be focus on analyzing mutants with completely blocked ethylene pathways in different species at specific developmental stages and tissue types. Overall, this review offers a timely and essential summary of ethylene’s role in sex determination, fruit formation, and fruit growth, which could be beneficial for horticulture crop breeding.

中文翻译：

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水果中的乙烯：超出成熟控制范围


水果是人类和动物营养、矿物质和膳食纤维的丰富来源。虽然气态植物激素乙烯因其控制果实成熟的作用而闻名，但越来越多的证据表明，乙烯在调节果实的其他发育过程中也发挥着至关重要的作用，例如性别决定、坐果和果实生长。在这篇综述中，我们的目标是重新审视黄瓜、甜瓜、番茄、水稻、玉米等不同物种的这些发现。这些研究不仅增强了我们对乙烯在水果中功能的理解，而且强调了操纵乙烯来改良作物的潜力。此外，我们讨论了最近的研究，这些研究表明乙烯前体 ACC (1-氨基环丙烷-1-羧基酯) 以及乙烯信号成分 EIN2 (乙烯不敏感2) 和 EIN3 (乙烯不敏感3) 在特定条件下具有不依赖于乙烯的功能。这种现象以及表明乙烯在某些物种中以剂量依赖性方式发挥作用的发现表明，在研究乙烯功能时，我们应该重点分析不同物种在特定发育阶段和组织类型中乙烯途径完全阻断的突变体。总的来说，这篇综述对乙烯在性别决定、果实形成和果实生长中的作用提供了及时而重要的总结，这可能有利于园艺作物育种。