Abstract Exogenous carbon not only provides energy for plant growth, but also regulates plant growth and development as signal molecules. The objective of this work was to investigate how exogenous carbon regulating plant growth and development. ‘Pinot Noir’ grape (Vitis vinifera L.) plantlet cultured with CO2 as follows: current atmospheric CO2 and eCO2 (1000 μmol•mol− 1). Four kinds of blocks were used for treatments, no sucrose under atmospheric CO2, 2% sucrose under atmospheric CO2, no sucrose under eCO2 and with 2% sucrose under eCO2 were designated as CK, S1, C0 and Cs, respectively. The results showed that the leaf area, plantlet height and shoot fresh weight of S1, C0 and Cs were significantly increased compared with that of CK. Besides, after transcriptomic and proteomic analysis, 70 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 65 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified with pooled data for Cs, C0 and S1 compared with CK, which effected by exogenous carbon. Among which, 8 DEGs, including ERF5 (LOC100244353, LOC100247763, LOC100254616 and LOC100261260), ERF105 (LOC100249507 and LOC100259725), ERF2 (LOC100254640) and CTr (CTr7), as well as 2 DEPs, including S-adenosylmethionine synthase 5 (SAM synthase 5; XP_002280106.1) and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase 2 (ACC oxidase 2; NP_001267871.1), related to ethylene signaling process were identified. The results suggested that exogenous carbon could affect ethylene biosynthesis by ACC oxidase 2 catalyzing the production of ACC. Additionally, the up-regulated expression of CTr7 and ERF5 maybe regulate other genes to affect the ethylene signaling pathway. Therefore, we speculate that exogenous carbon may regulate plant growth through ethylene signaling pathways.