Preparation of ethylene gas and comparison of ethylene responses induced by ethylene, ACC, and ethephon

Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone used in many physiological studies examining its role in plant growth and development. However, ethylene gas may not be conveniently available to many laboratories for occasional use, and therefore several chemicals can be used as replacements. Here we report that the kinetics of the ethylene response induced by ethylene and two widely-used ethylene replacements are different. ACC failed to efficiently replace prolonged ethylene treatments, while the decomposition products of ethephon may cause non-specific responses and the efficiency of ethephon conversion to ethylene was relatively low. A cost-effective method to prepare ethylene gas was developed. Analyzed by gas chromatography, the chemically produced ethylene exhibited an identical chromatogram to that from the commercial source. Our synthetic ethylene gave the same dose-response curve in Arabidopsis as gaseous ethylene. Our study shows that the use of the ethylene gas is essential to experiments that are sensitive to treatment duration and dosage. When ACC and ethephon are used as replacements, caution should be taken in the experimental design. For laboratories that do not have an ethylene tank, ethylene gas can be easily prepared by a chemical approach without further purification.