Ethylene Ethylene Ethylene is a plant hormone that differs from other plant hormones in being a gas . 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. The presence of ethylene is probably detected by transmembrane receptors in the surface of the plasma membrane of the cells. How the role of ethylene was discovered. As is so often the case in science, the discovery of the role of ethylene was made by accident. When first harvested, lemons are often too green to be acceptable in the market.