Project description:Red blotch disease causes major reprogramming of grape berry metabolism and development leading to the inhibition of ripening pathways and stress responses
Project description:In commercial fruit production, synchronized ripening and stable shelf life are important properties. The loosely clustered or non-bunching muscadine grape has unrealized potential as a disease resistant cash crop, but requires repeated hand harvesting due to its unsynchronized or long or heterogeneous maturation period. Genomic research can be used to identify the developmental and environmental factors that control fruit ripening and postharvest quality. This study coupled the morphological, biochemical, and genetic variations between ‘Carlos’ and ‘Noble’ muscadine grape cultivars with RNA-sequencing analysis during berry maturation. The levels of antioxidants, anthocyanins, and titratable acids varied between the two cultivars during the ripening process. We also identified new genes, pathways, and regulatory networks that modulated berry ripening in muscadine grape. These findings may help develop a large-scale database of the genetic factors of muscadine grape ripening and postharvest profiles and allow the discovery of the factors underlying the ripeness heterogeneity at harvest. These genetic resources may allow us to combine applied and basic research methods in breeding to improve table and wine grape ripening uniformity, quality, stress tolerance, and postharvest handling and storage.
Project description:Taste and color, which are important organoleptic qualities of grape berry, undergo rapid and substantial changes during development and ripening. In this study, we use two cultivars ‘Sanbenti’ and its bud sport ‘11-06-25’ to explore expression profiles differences and identify genes associated with total soluble solid (TSS) and total anthocyanins during grape berry development stages using RNA sequencing.
Project description:Grape berries undergo considerable physical and biochemical changes during the ripening process. Ripening is characterized by a number of changes, including the degradation of chlorophyll, an increase in berry deformability, a rapid increase in the level of hexoses in the berry vacuole, an increase in berry volume, the catabolism of organic acids, the development of skin colour, and the formation of compounds that influence flavour, aroma, and therefore, wine quality. The aim of this work is to identify differentially expressed genes during grape ripening by microarray and real-time PCR techniques. Using a custom array of new generation, we analysed the expression of 6000 grape genes from pre-veraison to full maturity, in Vitis vinifera cultivar Muscat of Hamburg, in two different years (2006 and 2007). Five time points per year and two biological replicates per stadium were considered. To reduced intra-plant and inter-plant biological variability, for each ripening stadium we collected around hundred berries from several bunch grapes of five plants of V. vinifera cv Muscat of Hamburg. We will use the real-time PCR technique to validate microarray data.Muscat of Hamburg. We will use the real-time PCR technique to validate microarray data.
Project description:The interplay between environmental and genetic factors conditions the fruit ripening program in plants. Transcriptome analysis of grapevine fruits can help understanding these interactions to consciously cope with conditions leading to detrimental effects for viticultural purposes. However, considering the grapevine characteristic ripening asynchrony, which can be intensified by contrasting conditions, accurate grape sampling may be essential for molecular comparisons. In this study, berry density sorting according to floatability in NaCl solutions was assessed as a grape ripening staging strategy. Total sugar content was more correlated with berry density than with other non-invasive ripening parameters. The transcriptome was compared between three density classes collected near commercial maturity using grapevine whole-genome NimbleGen microarrays. Expression profiles clearly related with ripening progression were detected in a density series simultaneously collected from a vineyard of Albariño. By contrast, considerable differences were detected when the same density series was sampled on two different dates from the same vineyard of Tempranillo. Functional analysis indicated that environmental differences between both sampling moments determined most of these expression differences. Ripening degree-dependent responses to the environment were also detected. Finally, the effect of the sorting procedures on the grape transcriptome showed negligible when it was directly tested. Altogether, these findings evidence the convenience of homogenizing the developmental stage and the sampling time conditions for transcriptome comparisons. Berry density sorting proved useful to this end, although this method could be limited when the berry sugar concentration is not determined by the ripening developmental program.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. The interplay between environmental and genetic factors conditions the fruit ripening program in plants. Transcriptome analysis of grapevine fruits can help understanding these interactions to consciously cope with conditions leading to detrimental effects for viticultural purposes. However, considering the grapevine characteristic ripening asynchrony, which can be intensified by contrasting conditions, accurate grape sampling may be essential for molecular comparisons. In this study, berry density sorting according to floatability in NaCl solutions was assessed as a grape ripening staging strategy. Total sugar content was more correlated with berry density than with other non-invasive ripening parameters. The transcriptome was compared between three density classes collected near commercial maturity using grapevine whole-genome NimbleGen microarrays. Expression profiles clearly related with ripening progression were detected in a density series simultaneously collected from a vineyard of Albariño. By contrast, considerable differences were detected when the same density series was sampled on two different dates from the same vineyard of Tempranillo. Functional analysis indicated that environmental differences between both sampling moments determined most of these expression differences. Ripening degree-dependent responses to the environment were also detected. Finally, the effect of the sorting procedures on the grape transcriptome showed negligible when it was directly tested. Altogether, these findings evidence the convenience of homogenizing the developmental stage and the sampling time conditions for transcriptome comparisons. Berry density sorting proved useful to this end, although this method could be limited when the berry sugar concentration is not determined by the ripening developmental program.