Hydrogen gas alleviates postharvest senescence of cut rose ‘Movie star’ by antagonizing ethylene

H2 prolonged the vase life and improved the vase quality of cut roses through repressing endogenous ethylene production and alleviating ethylene signal transduction during the entire senescing period. Recently, the application of hydrogen gas (H2) was shown to improve postharvest quality and longevity in perishable horticultural products, but the specific regulation mechanism remains obscure. Here, endogenous ethylene production and the expression of genes in ethylene biosynthesis and signalling pathway were investigated to explore the crosstalk between H2 and ethylene during the senescence of cut roses. Our results revealed that addition of exogenous ethylene by ethephon accelerated the senescence of cut roses, in which 100 mg L−1 ethephon displayed the most obvious senescent phenotype. While the applied different concentrations (1%, 10%, 50% and 100%) of hydrogen-rich water (HRW) conducted different affects in alleviating the senescence of cut roses, and 1% HRW displayed the best ornamental quality and the longest vase life by reducing ethylene production, supported by the decrease of 1-aminocyclopropene-1-carboxylate (ACC) accumulation, ACC synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO) activities, and Rh-ACS3 and Rh-ACO1 expressions in ethylene biosynthesis. In addition, HRW increased the transcripts of ethylene receptor genes Rh-ETR1 at blooming period from day 4 to day 6 and suppressed Rh-ETR3 at senescence phase at day 8 after harvest. Furthermore, the relevant affection of HRW on Rh-ETR1 and Rh-ETR3 expressions still existed when the ethylene production was compromised by adequate addition of exogenous ethylene in HRW-treated cut rose petals, and HRW directly repressed the protein level of Rh-ETR3 in a transient expression assay. Overall, the results suggested that H2 is involved in neutralizing ethylene-mediated postharvest in cut flowers.