Ethylene-mediated improvement in sucrose accumulation in ripening sugarcane involves increased sink strength.

Ethylene-induced sucrose accumulation is more pronounced in low-sugar sugarcane genotype, and this is possibly achieved by the preferential activation of genes such as invertases that increase sink strength in the stem. The relatively high enrichment of differentially expressed genes associated with hormone metabolism and signaling and stress suggests a strong hormonal regulation of source-sink activity, growth and sucrose accumulation in sugarcane.