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Figure 1. 

The different mutations and regulation of ACS2 determine the sex and fruit length of cucumbers. A G97T non-synonymous mutation in the first exon of CsACS2 coding region, impairing the enzyme activity and thus producing differences between the unisexual and the bisexual alleles. RING-type E3 ligase short fruit 1 (SF1) regulates fruit length by modulating ethylene dosage via ubiquitination and degradation of both itself and CsACS2 at the post-translational level. A synonymous SNP at the 1,287 position can determine ethylene production through epitranscriptomic (m⁶A methylation and RNA structure,) thereby regulating the length of cucumber fruits.

Figure 2. 

A plausible mechanism of ACS2 in regulating female flowers and inferior ovary formation. During the floral development, ACS2 is specifically expressed in the receptacle-derived connective tissues and CsACO is highly expressed in stamen. Right, a spatial visualization of CsACO and CsACS2.