Light- and dark-grown Potamogeton pectinatus, an aquatic macrophyte, make no ethylene (ethene) but retain responsiveness to the gas

Plants of Potamogeton pectinatus L., growing rapidly from small tubers in the dark or from 12-week-old light-grown plants, contained high concentrations of the ethylene precursor 1-amino-cyclopropane- 1-carboxylic acid (ACC) (4.8 – 25.6 nmol g-1 fresh weight). However, ethylene (ethene) production was either completely absent or too small to raise concentrations significantly above background when measured by flame ionization gas chromatography sensitive to