Abstract：Abstract：To explore the relationship between ethylene and ethylene receptor genes in different developmental stages of wild type tomato（Lycopersicon esculentum Mill cv. Lichun） fruits, as well as in antisense ACS transgenic tomato fruits, LeETR1 and LeETR4 fragments were amplified by reverse -transcription - polymerase -chain -reaction (RT-PCR)from tomato fruit in the experiment. Northern blot analysis indicated that the expression of two ethylene receptor genes in wild type tomato fruit did not differ significantly during fruit ripening, whereas LeETR4 showed lower expression in outer pericarp compared with radial pericarp and columella at the same stage. The level of either LeETR1 mRNA or LeETR4 mRNA in antisense ACS transgenic tomato fruit was significantly lower than that in wild-type fruit. Exogenously applied ethylene could induce the expression of both LeETR1 and LeETR4. The results demonstrated that the expression of LeETR1 and LeETR4 genes could be regulated by ethylene.
