Abstract: A homologous fragment with RTE1 was obtained through screening the rose EST database，then the full length（1 233 bp）of this gene was cloned from rose petals. This gene contained a 732 bp open reading frame，a 339 bp 5′ untranslated region，and a 162 bp 3′ untranslated region. The predicted protein consisted of 243 amino acids，had a calculated molecular mass of 27.6 kD，and its isoelectric point is 6.87. This gene shared high identity with AtRTE1 inArabidopsis，and it belonged to group one in RTE gene families，so it was named as RhRTE1. The expression of RhRTE1 enhanced gradually during the flower opening process，and it could also be induced by ethylene and wounding treatments. Through transferring 35S::GFP-RhRTE1 fusion protein into Arabidopsis，we found that RhRTE1 was located on the cell membranes，and over expression of RhRTE1 reduced the ethylene sensitivity of Arabidopsis. The results above indicated that RhRTE1 may be involved in ethylene regulated flower opening and damage recovery in rose flowers.

Key words: rose, Rosa hybrida, flower opening, ethylene, RTE, gene expression, functional verification