Fig. 1: Ethylene promotes branching but inhibits tendril formation.

a Mature plants (30 days after germination, DAG) were treated with exogenous ethylene for observation of branching and tendril development. The area in the dashed box is magnified on the right. Red arrows indicate the branching sites, while white triangles mark the positions of normally developed tendrils. Orange triangles highlight positions where tendrils are absent or exhibit delayed development. Scale bars= 5 cm. b Violin plots depicting the distribution of branch numbers at different nodes for ethylene-treated group and control group. Significant differences in the means (±SE, n = 15 independent plants), determined by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test, are indicated by asterisks (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01). Violin plots showing the total number of tendrils (c) and total tendril length (d) at nodes 2-6 in mature plants of the ethylene-treated group and control group. Statistical significance in the means ( ± SE, n = 15 independent plants) was determined using a two-tailed Student’s t-test, and P values are provided. b–d The thick line within the plots indicates the median value, the X symbol indicates the mean value. e Phenotypes of branching and tendrils in cucumber seedlings (15 DAG) treated with different concentrations of exogenous ethylene (0.2 mM, 1 mM, and 5 mM ethephon with sterile water treatment serving as the control). Top to bottom: whole plant, branching details, tendril details. The white arrows indicate the branching sites, whereas the white triangles indicate the normal tendrils. Scale bars = 5 cm. Box plots showing the distribution of branch numbers (f) and tendril numbers (g) under different ethylene doses. The center line represents the median, the boundaries indicate the 25th and 75th percentiles. Whiskers extend to the largest and smallest values. Significant differences in the means (±SE, n = 15 independent plants) were determined using one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test, and P values are indicated, and the X symbol indicates the mean value. (h) Correlation analysis of the average number of branches per node and the average number of tendrils per node using the two-tailed Pearson method. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.