LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ethylene
built 639 days ago
Ethylene is among the simplest organic compounds. This compound is a colorless gas with a pungent smell that can be isolated from oil and natural gas. Plants use ethylene to control ripening and growth. Dimitry Neljubow first discovered this in 1901 in St. Petersburg, Russia when he observed that plants near gas lanterns had abnormally shaped stems and leaves. This made ethylene the oldest known growth regulator. Today farmers use ethylene to promote the ripening of fruits before they are sold in stores.
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Ethylene is a plant hormone that differs from other plant hormones in being a gas. It has the molecular structure: H2C=CH2 When fruits approach maturity, they release ethylene. Ethylene promotes the ripening of fruit. Among the many changes that ethylene causes is the destruction of chlorophyll. With the breakdown of chlorophyll, the red and/or yellow pigments in the cells of the fruit are unmasked and the fruit assumes its ripened color. The presence of ethylene is probably detected by transmembrane receptors (protein that passes one or more times through the lipid bilayer of a cell membrane) in the surface of the plasma membrane of the cells.
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Ethylene could be perceived by a transmembrane protein dimer complex. The first gene encoding an ethylene receptor was first cloned from Arabidopsis thaliana by Caren Chang, Elliot Meyerowitz and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology[16] and then in tomato by Jack Wilkinson, Harry Klee and colleagues at the Monsanto Company[17]. Ethylene receptors are encoded by multiple genes in the Arabidopsis and tomato genomes. The gene family is comprised of five receptors in Arabidopsis and six in tomato, most of which have been shown to bind ethylene. DNA sequences for ethylene receptors have ... been identified in many other plant species and an ethylene binding protein has even been identified in Cyanobacteria[18]
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These Ethylene filters use new BI-ON granules to absorb ethylene, fungi spores, bacteria, and bad odors. Firmness, color, and freshness of produce are maintained, thereby reducing waste. The BI-ON granules are disposable, and compatible with Organic Produce; they do not leave any chemical residues on food (nonadditive). This new BI-ON technology has longer life of the media which ultimately helps save costs. Ethylene filters come in boxes of 6 units.
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Ethylene is produced in the petrochemical industry by steam cracking. In this process, gaseous or light liquid hydrocarbons are heated to 750–950 °C, inducing numerous free radical reactions followed by immediate quench to freeze the reactions. This process converts large hydrocarbons into smaller ones and introduces unsaturation. Ethylene is separated from the resulting complex mixture by repeated compression and distillation. In a related process used in oil refineries, high molecular weight hydrocarbons are cracked over Zeolite catalysts. Heavier feedstocks, such as naphtha and gas oils require at least two "quench towers" downstream of the cracking furnaces to recirculate pyrolysis-derived gasoline and process water.
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Ethylene is found in most living tissues. In most terrestrial mammals, small amounts of ethylene are expressed with every exhaled breath, but in animals, ethylene is not considered a hormone as it is in plants. There are seven major effects of ethylene in plants which are: promoting ripening, inducing fruit abscission, inducing flowering, promoting seed germination, breaking dormancy, promoting root initiation and inducing vegetative dwarfing. In the science of fruit growing, most of these effects are put to use for the grower's benefit. This paper gives an overview of ethylene's involvement in the process of fruit ripening, how it is measured, and what the measurements mean.
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Ethylene