Rhizobitoxine, an inhibitor of methionine biosynthesis in Salmonella typhimurium, inhibited ethylene production about 75% in light-grown sorghum seedlings and in senescent apple tissue. Ethylene production stimulated by indoleacetic acid and kinetin in sorgh-um was similarly inhibited. With both apple and sorghum, the inhibition could only be partially relieved by additions of methionine. A methionine analogue, a-keto-ymethylthiobutyric acid, which has been suggested as an intermediate between methionine and ethylene, had no effect on the inhibition.Incorporation of "4C from added methionine-'4C into ethylene was curtailed by rhizobitoxine to about the same extent as was ethylene production. These results suggest that rhizobitoxine interferes with ethylene biosynthesis by blocking the conversion of methionine to ethylene and not indirectly by inhibiting the biosynthesis of methionine. Ethylene production by Pemicillium digitatum, a fungus which produces ethylene via pathways not utilizing methionine as a precursor, was not affected by rhizobitoxine.Two model systems for the generation of ethylene in plant tissues have been described by Lieberman and co-workers, one utilizing methionine as a substrate (8), and the other utilizing linolenate (1 1). In addition, methionine can serve as a precursor of ethylene in plant tissues (2, 7). To help assess the physiological importance of methionine as an ethylene precursor, a specific inhibitor of methionine biosynthesis was sought. Rhizobitoxine appeared to offer that potential.Rhizobitoxine is a phytotoxin produced by certain strains of the soybean root nodule bacterium Rhizobium japonicum (15).It inhibits greening of new leaf tissue of many plants and causes the main visual symptom of the disease in soybean known as rihizobial-induced chlorosis (14). The precise structure of rhizobitoxine remains to be elucidated; however, it is known to be a basic sulfur-containing amino acid which yields an ether derivative of homoserine upon desulfurization (13). Rhizobitoxine inhibits the growth of Salmonella typhimurium by inhibiting /3-cystathionase, an enzyme in the methionine biosynthetic pathway (12). It also irreversibly inactivates /Bcystathionase isolated from spinach leaves (4); however, the physiological effect of this lesion on the biosynthesis of methionine in spinach has yet to be assessed. We report here that rhizobitoxine inhibits ethylene biosynthesis in sorghum seedlings and in senescent apple tissue by the unexpected mechanism of blocking the conversion of methionine to ethylene. Hegari were surface-sterilized by wetting with ethanol and then immersing in an aqueous solution of 0.2% HgCl2 + 1% HCl for 2 min. After rinsing well, the seeds were germinated on moist filter paper in a Petri dish at 27 C in the dark. Two days after imbibition, the seedlings were transplanted to 50-ml Erlenmeyer flasks constructed with a side arm to collect CO2. Six seedlings per flask (about 300 mg fresh wt) were supported on a nylon mesh screen held 1.0 cm above the flask bottom...