Purification and Properties of the Ethylene-Inducing Factor from the Cell Wall Digesting Mixture, Cellulysin

Abstract

The production of ethylene during development and senescence of higher plants is a well established fact. Also, stress (including physical and chemical wounding), or application of herbicides and hormones, as well as host-pathogen interaction induce ethylene production (11). Recently we reported a new type of ethylene-inducing agent, a cell wall digesting enzyme mixture, ‘Cel1ulysin’ (4). The induction of ethylene in tobacco leaves (4) by Cellulysin can be relatively fast, within 30 minutes, compared to that by the hormope IAA which takes hours (2). Cellulysin-mediated induction of ethylene biosynthesis is inferred to be at the level of ACC synthase because ACC is produced and 0.lmM aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG), a known inhibitor of this enzyme (1), inhibits both the induction of ACC and ethylene biosynthesis. The mechanism by which Cellulysin induces ethylene biosynthesis is not known, but it occurs even in the presence of the protein synthesis inhibitors, cycloheximide (50mM) and chloramphenicol (100 µg/ml).

This work was carried out in part under the Cooperative Agreement No. 58-32U4-1-216 of the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and the University of Maryland and supported in part by a grant from the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD).