The plant hormone ethylene regulates growth, development and stress responses. In recent years, various genomic and proteomic approaches have been initiated to understand both the range of ethylene responses in the plant and the mechanism of signal transduction. Transcriptional profiling experiments reveal broad-ranging effects of ethylene upon gene regulation, with up to 7 per cent of the genes examined demonstrating a significant level of response in one study. Both transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms regulate the expression of components within the ethylene signal transduction pathway. The importance of post-transcriptional regulation via the ubiquitin/proteasome-mediated degradation pathway is apparent in studies on the accumulation of ethylene insensitive 3 (EIN3), a key transcription factor in the pathway. Protein complexes also play a role in modulating ethylene signal transduction, with interactions between the ethylene receptors and the Raf-like kinase constitutive triple response-1 (CTR1) being required for ethylene perception at the endoplasmic reticulum. In this paper, recent developments in unravelling the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of the ethylene signalling and response pathways are considered, along with the latest developments in unravelling the biochemical mechanism behind ethylene perception.