Abstract
Background
Grape is an economically valuable fruit around the world. However, some cultivars are prone to fruit cracking during ripening, leading to severe losses.
Objective
We aimed to find important metabolisms related to fruit cracking during ripening process.
Methods
RNA-Sequence and analysis was applied to the pericarp of cracking-susceptible ‘Xiang Fei’ at 1 (W1), 2 (W2) and 3 weeks (W3) after veraison on Illumina HiSeq xten;
Results
Compared with W1, the berry cracking rate increased significantly in W2 and W3. Through transcriptomic analysis, a total of 22,609 genes were expressed in the grape pericarp, among which 805 and 2758 genes were significantly differentially regulated in W1-vs.-W2 and W1-vs.-W3 comparison, respectively. Besides, 304 and 354 genes were up- and down-regulated in both comparisons. The significantly enriched GO terms of both W1–W2 and W1–W3 are related to cell wall and wax biosynthesis. And lipid metabolism, which are involved in the top 20 enriched KEGG pathways of both comparisons, was related to wax biosynthesis. Further, GO enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with same regulatory changes also indicated that the continuously up-regulated DEGs are significantly enriched in cell wall component biosynthesis and hydrolase.
Conclusion
These findings suggested that genes related to cell wall metabolism and cuticle biosynthesis may play important roles in regulating grape berry cracking. Our results provide a reference for further studies on the molecular mechanism underlying fruit cracking.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Jennifer Smith, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Group China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by National Technology System for Grape Industry, Grant number CARS-29-ZP-9.
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Zhu, M., Yu, J., Zhao, M. et al. Transcriptome analysis of metabolisms related to fruit cracking during ripening of a cracking-susceptible grape berry cv. Xiangfei (Vitis vinifera L.). Genes Genom 42, 639–650 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-020-00930-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-020-00930-y