Beyond a Plant Hormone: Ethylene Receptors and Signaling in Microbes.
Ferdous M, Brenya E, Binder BM
Plant Signaling
Bacteria living in your garden soil and on your plants' roots can sense the same ripening signals your tomatoes and apples release — which means the invisible microbial world around your plants may be silently shifting its behavior every time a fruit ripens or a stressed plant sends out a chemical cry for help.
Ethylene is the invisible gas that turns bananas yellow and tells plants to respond to stress. Scientists long believed only plants could pick up on this signal, but in the last ten years researchers found that certain bacteria — and possibly some fungi too — carry sensors that work just like the ones in plants, letting them 'eavesdrop' on plant messages and change their own behavior in response. This suggests ethylene is a much older and more universal chemical language than anyone realized.
Key Findings
Bacteria possess functional plant-like ethylene receptors confirmed across multiple studies over the past decade, with ethylene binding shown to significantly alter bacterial metabolism and physiology.
Some fungi may also carry functional plant-like ethylene receptors with binding domains structurally similar to those in plants, extending ethylene sensing beyond the plant and bacterial kingdoms.
Microbes may additionally possess entirely distinct, noncanonical ethylene receptors that are evolutionarily unrelated to plant receptors, suggesting ethylene sensing may have evolved independently multiple times across life.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Ethylene, the gas plants use to ripen fruit and signal stress, turns out to be detected not just by plants but also by bacteria — and possibly fungi. Over the past decade, scientists discovered that some microbes carry receptors nearly identical to plant ethylene receptors, meaning this ancient signaling molecule coordinates life across multiple kingdoms.
Abstract Preview
Ethylene has been recognized as a plant hormone that impacts growth, development, and stress responses for over a century. Hallmarks of hormone receptors are that they have saturable and specific l...
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