Project description:Fungal entomopathogens like Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill. (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) are known as antagonist of insects with multiple functional and ecological roles and have attracted increased attention as biocontrol agents in integrated pest management programs. A microarray analysis was performed to work out fundamental aspects of genes involved in the interaction between grapevine and the endophytic fungus B. bassiana. The results indicate an up-regulation of diverse defense-related genes in grapevine as a response to a treatment with B. bassiana
Project description:Two small RNA libraries were generated from micropropagated â??Muscat Hamburgâ?? (Vitis vinifera) plantlets under normal and low temperatures (4 °C). A total of 163 known miRNAs and 299 putative novel miRNAs were detected from two small RNA libraries by Solexa sequencing. Forty-four cold-inducible miRNAs were identified through differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) analysis; among which, 13 belonged to upregulated DEMs while 31 belonged downregulated DEMs. This study indicated that a diverse set of miRNAs in V. vinifera are cold-inducible and may play an important role in cold stress response. Examination of small RNA populations in grapevine under cold treatment and none cold treatment.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNA molecules which have significant gene regulation roles in organisms. The advent of new high throughput sequencing technologies has enabled the revelation of novel miRNAs. Although there are two recent reports on high throughput sequencing analysis of small RNA libraries from different organs of two grapevine wine varieties, there were significant divergence in the number and kinds of miRNAs sequenced in these studies. More sequencing of small RNA libraries is still important for the discovery of novel miRNAs in grapevine. Here, we initially constructed a small RNA library of flower and fruit tissues of a table grapevine cultivar ‘Summer Black’ and performed sequencing and analysis of sRNAs using the Illumina Solexa platform, expecting to discover more miRNAs related to the development of grapevine flowers and berries and the formation of dessert quality in grapevine berries. Totally, 130 conserved grapevine miRNA (Vv-miRNA) belonging to 28 Vv-miRNA families were validated, and 92 novel potential grapevine-specific ones representing 80 unique ones were first discovered. Forty-two (48.84%) of the novel miRNAs possessed differential semi-quantitative PCR expression profiles in various grapevine tissues that could further confirm their existence in the grapevine, among which twenty were expressed only in grapevine berries, indicating some fruit-specificity. 130 target genes for 46 novel miRNAs could be predicted. The locations of these potential target genes on grapevine chromosomes and their complementary levels with the corresponding miRNAs were also analyzed.
Project description:Grapevine red blotch is a recently identified viral disease that was first recognized in the Napa Valley of California. Infected plants showed foliar symptoms similar to leafroll, another grapevine viral disease, on vines testing negative for known grapevine leafroll-associated virus. Later, the Grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV) was independently discovered in the US states of California and New York and was demonstrated to be the causal agent of red blotch disease. Due to its wide occurrence in the US, vector transmission and impacts on grape industry, this virus has the potential to cause serious economic losses. Despite numerous attempts, it was not possible to isolate or visualize viral particles from GRBV infected plants. Consequently, this has hampered the development of a serological assay that would facilitate GRBV detection in grapevine. We therefore decided to explore mass spectrometry approaches in order to quantify GRBV in infected plants and to identify potential biomarkers for viral infection. We present for the first time the physical detection on the protein level of the two GRBV genes V1 (coat protein) and V2 in grapevine tissue lysates. The GRBV coat protein load in leaf petioles was determined to be in the range of 100 to 900 million copies per milligram wet weight by using three heavy isotope labeled reference peptides as internal standards. The V1 copy number per unit wet tissue weight in leaves appeared to be about six times lower, and about 200-times lower in terms of protein concentration in the extractable protein mass than in petioles. We found a consistent upregulation of several enzymes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis in leaf and petiole extracts of GRBV-infected plants by label-free shotgun proteomics, indicating the activation of a defense mechanism against GRBV, a plant response already described for grapevine leafroll associated virus infection on the transcriptome level. Last but not least, we identified some other microorganisms belonging to the grapevine leaf microbiota, two bacterial species (Novosphingobium sp. Rr 2-17 and Methylobacterium) and one virus, Grapevine rupestris stem pitting associated virus.
Project description:microRNAs(miRNAs) play critical regulatory roles mainly through cleaving targeted mRNAs or repressing gene translation during plant developments. Grapevine is amongst the most economically important fruit crops with whole genome available, and the study on grapevine miRNAs (Vv-miRNAs) have also been emphasized. However, the regulation mode of Vv-miRNAs on their target mRNAs during grapevine development has not been studied well, especially on a transcriptome-wide level. Here, six small RNA (sRNA) and mRNA libraries from various grapevine tissues were constructed for Illumina and Degradome sequencing. Subsequently, the spatiotemporal variation in the Vv-miRNAs’ regulation on their target genes was systematically analyzed. Totally, 242 known and 132 novel Vv-miRNAs were identified, and 193 target mRNAs including 103 for known and 90 for novel miRNAs were validated in one or more of tissues examined. The interesting finding was that over 50% of novel miRNAs were expressed exclusively in flowers or berries where they had tissue-specific cleavage roles on their target genes, especially, the breadth of their cleavage sites in flower tissues. Moreover, six novel miRNAs in berries were found to response to exogenous gibberellin (GA) and/or ethylene by real time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis, confirming their regulatory functions during berry development. Other finding was that about 93.6% of the known miRNAs possessed the high conservation in various tissues where their expression levels exhibited some dynamic variations during grapevine development. Significantly, it was found the phenomena that some Vv-miRNA families exist one key member that act as the main regulator of their target genes during grapevine development.
Project description:MicroRNA (miRNA) is a class of functional non-coding small RNA with 19-25 nucleotides in length. Amur grape (Vitis amurensis Rupr.) is an important wild fruit crop with the strongest cold resistance in the Vitis genus and is used as an excellent breeding parent for grapevine, and with growing interest in terms of wine production. To date, there is a relatively large number of grapevine miRNAs (vv-miRNAs) from cultivated grapevine varieties such as Vitis vinifera L. and hybrids of V. vinifera and V. labrusca, but there is no report on miRNAs from Vitis amurensis Rupr, a wild grapevine species. In this study, a small RNA library from Amur grapes was constructed and Solexa technology used to perform deep sequencing of the library followed by subsequent bioinformatics analysis to identify new miRNAs. In total, 126 conserved miRNA belonging to 27 miRNA families were identified, and 34 known but non-conserved miRNAs were also found. Significantly, 72 new potential Amur grapevine-specific miRNAs were discovered. The sequences of these new potential va-miRNAs were further validated through miR-RACE, accumulation of 18 new va-miRNAs in seven tissues of grapevines were also confirmed by real time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis, and expression levels of va-miRNAs in flowers and berries were basically consistent in identity to those from deep sequenced sRNAs libraries of independent corresponding tissues. We also describe the conservation and variation of va-miRNAs using miR-SNPs and miR-LDs during plant evolution based on comparison of orthologous sequences, and revealed the number and sites of miR-SNP of diverse miRNA families exhibited distinct divergence. Finally, 346 target genes for the new miRNAs were predicted and they include a number of Amur grapevine stress tolerance genes and many genes regulating anthocyanin systhesis and sugar metabolism. Deep sequencing of short RNAs from Amur grapes flowers and fruits identified 72 new potential miRNAs and 34 known but non-conserved miRNAs, indicating that specific miRNAs exist in Amur grapes. These results show that a number of regulatory miRNAs exist in Amur grapes and play an important role in Amur grape growth, development, and response to abiotic or biotic stress.