How plants sense ethylene gas--the ethylene receptors

Ethylene is a hormone that affects many processes important for plant growth, development, and responses to stresses. The first step in ethylene signal transduction is when ethylene binds to its receptors. Numerous studies have examined how these receptors function. In this review we summarize many of these studies and present our current understanding about how ethylene binds to the receptors. The biochemical output of the receptors is not known but current models predict that when ethylene binds to the receptors, the activity of the associated protein kinase, CTR1 (constitutive triple response1), is reduced. This results in downstream transcriptional changes leading to ethylene responses. We present a model where a copper cofactor is required and the binding of ethylene causes the receptor to pass through a transition state to become non-signaling leading to lower CTR1 activity.