Jeffery Shen (Life Sciences) has published, along with two other authors, “Dual activities of ACC synthase: Novel clues regarding the molecular evolution of ACS genes” in the journal Science Advances.
The paper reports a paradigm-shifting discovery regarding the molecular evolution of ethylene biosynthesis genes in a time course of over 450 million years. Ethylene is a plant hormone essential for plant development and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In human, ethylene is also produced during systemic inflammation. The findings in this work not only expand our current understanding of ACS functions in ethylene production but also provide novel insights into the evolutionary origin of ACS genes.
