selective defoliation affects plant growth, fruit transcriptional ripening program and flavonoid metabolism in grapevine选择性落叶影响植物生长,水果转录成熟项目和类黄酮代谢的小道消息.pdfVIP

Pastore et al. BMC Plant Biology 2013, 13:30 /1471-2229/13/30 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Selective defoliation affects plant growth, fruit transcriptional ripening program and flavonoid metabolism in grapevine 1† 2† 2 2 2* 1 Chiara Pastore , Sara Zenoni , Marianna Fasoli , Mario Pezzotti , Giovanni Battista Tornielli and Ilaria Filippetti Abstract Background: The selective removal of grapevine leaves around berry clusters can improve the quality of ripening fruits by influencing parameters such as the berry sugar and anthocyanin content at harvest. The outcome depends strongly on the timing of defoliation, which influences the source–sink balance and the modified microclimate surrounding the berries. We removed the basal leaves from Vitis vinifera L. cv Sangiovese shoots at the pre-bloom and veraison stages, and investigated responses such as shoot growth, fruit morphology and composition compared to untreated controls. Moreover, we performed a genome-wide expression analysis to explore the impact of these defoliation treatments on berry transcriptome. Results: We found that pre-bloom defoliation improved berry quality traits such as sugar and anthocyanin content, whereas defoliation at veraison had a detrimental effect, e.g. less anthocyanin and higher incidence of sunburn damage. Genome-wide expression analysis during berry ripening revealed that defoliation at either stage resulted in major transcriptome reprogramming, which slightly delayed the onset of ripening. However, a closer investigation of individual gene expression profiles identified genes that were specifically modulated by defoliation at each stage, reflecting the uncoupling of metabolic processes su