Chapter 17

Ethylene

Signaling, Transgenics, and Applications in Crop Improvement

Pragati Kumari

Pragati Kumari

Scientist Hostel-S-02, Chauras Campus, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India

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Rahul Thakur

Rahul Thakur

Department of Biotechnology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal (Central) University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India

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Arvind Gupta

Arvind Gupta

Department of Biotechnology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal (Central) University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India

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Vinay Kumar

Vinay Kumar

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

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Archana Thakur

Archana Thakur

University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India

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Saurabh Yadav

Saurabh Yadav

Department of Biotechnology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal (Central) University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India

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First published: 26 August 2022

Summary

Since plants are immovable, they need an intricate network of phytohormones and well-developed signaling pathways to counter stress, grow, and develop throughout their life cycle. One of these is a well-known ripening hormone, ethylene, which helps coordinate the molecular events leading to fruit ripening. Ripening is the commercially relevant culmination of molecular events that help plant breeders and scientists learn more intricate details of this phenomenon, and farmers get immense benefit. This chapter discusses ethylene, its associated linear signaling pathway, its crosstalk with other hormones, their well-coordinated signaling with many transcription factors, genes related to metabolite biosynthesis, etc. Ripening causes many changes in aroma, color, and taste that increase fruit quality. The main objective of plant biotechnologists is to preserve the supply of seasonal fruits by maintaining taste, color, and shelf life so fruit is not destroyed during transportation. This is challenging as any softening or delay in reaching the market reduces the fruit's value. Plant biotechnology helps by developing crops with desired traits and a controlled ripening process. In these transgenic plants, many key genes are used to down-regulate and up-regulate the molecular events that lead to proper ripening.

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