Ethylene Insensitive Plants

Inventors: Joseph Ecker, Ramlah Nehring, Robert McGrath
Potential Uses: Plant Biology, Agriculture, Horticulture, Floriculture
Mutants conferring ethylene insensitivity on plants

The gaseous plant hormone ethylene modulates a diverse array of biological processes in plants including cell elongation, senescence and abscission of leaves and flowers, fruit ripening and responses to a wide variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. The ability to genetically manipulate ethylene production will provide agriculture with new tools to prevent detrimental effects (senescence) or provide the beneficial properties of ethylene responsiveness, such as controlling fruit ripening. The invention describes a mutated form of the EIN6 gene (ein6) that results in an altered response to ethylene including an ethylene insensitive root (EIR) phenotype. A double mutant consisting of the mutant EIN6 gene and a mutated form of the een gene results in ethylene insensitivity throughout the plant in contrast to the EIR phenotype found in the ein6 single mutant.