Ethylene receptor ETHYLENE RECEPTOR1 domain requirements for ethylene responses in Arabidopsis seedlings

Ethylene influences many processes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) through the action of five receptor isoforms. We used high-resolution, time-lapse imaging of dark-grown Arabidopsis seedlings to better understand the roles of each isoform in the regulation of growth in air, ethylene-stimulated nutations, and growth recovery after ethylene removal. We found that ETHYLENE RECEPTOR1 (ETR1) is both necessary and sufficient for nutations. Transgene constructs in which the ETR1 promoter was used to drive expression of cDNAs for each of the five receptor isoforms were transferred into etr1-6;etr2-3;ein4-4 triple loss-of-function mutants that have constitutive growth inhibition in air, fail to nutate in ethylene, and take longer to recover a normal growth rate when ethylene is removed. The patterns of rescue show that ETR1, ETR2, and ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE4 (EIN4) have the prominent roles in rapid growth recovery after removal of ethylene whereas ETR1 was the sole isoform that rescued nutations. ETR1 histidine kinase activity and phosphotransfer through the receiver domain are not required to rescue nutations. However, REVERSION TO SENSITIVITY1 modulates ethylene-stimulated nutations but does not modulate the rate of growth recovery after ethylene removal. Several chimeric receptor transgene constructs where domains of EIN4 were swapped into ETR1 were also introduced into the triple mutant. The pattern of phenotype rescue by the chimeric receptors used in this study supports a model where a receptor with a receiver domain is required for normal growth recovery and that nutations specifically require the full-length ETR1 receptor.