Ethylene: A key player in ethylene sensitive flower senescence: A review

•The present review highlights the current understanding of flower senescence in ethylene sensitive species.•The review gives an updated information and provide the range of genes putatively involved in the implicated pathways leading to flower aging that may be blocked or induced to modify the progression of senescence.•The review also highlights implications of sugars in modulating the effects of ethylene on flower senescence.•The review presents a detailed perspective for future studies to unravel the basic underlying mechanism of flower senescence in general and senescence of ethylene sensitive flowers in particular. Ethylene plays an important role in the regulation of senescence in ethylene sensitive flowers with little or no role in case of ethylene insensitive flowers. Different growth regulators like gibberellic acid, cytokinins, abscisic acid and polyamines play vital role in regulating important developmental processes of plants through the inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis or perception. These interactions trigger a signaling cascade that regulates several developmental processes including petal wilting/senescence. Recent flower senescence studies have shown that the function of ethylene and its crosstalk with other growth regulators and sugars directly regulates flower senescence by influencing the genes involved in the ethylene-sensitive flower senescence. Additionally, the ethylene response genes involved in the ethylene sensitive flower senescence have been deciphered from a number of plant species. The regulation and characterization of these genes (such as ACC oxidase and ACC synthase) could open new vistas for research in understanding the mechanism of flower senescence. The review presents an in-depth perspective to unravel the basic underlying mechanism of flower senescence in general and senescence of ethylene sensitive flowers in particular.