Abstract
Blackcurrant fruit collected at six stages of development were assessed for changes in gene expression using custom whole transcriptome microarrays and for variation in metabolite content using a combination of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Principal components analysis demonstrated that fruit development could be clearly defined according to their transcript or metabolite profiles. During early developmental stages, metabolite profiles were dominated by amino acids and tannins, whilst transcript profiles were enriched in functions associated with cell division, anatomical structure morphogenesis and cell wall metabolism. During mid fruit development, fatty acids accumulated and transcript profiles were consistent with seed and embryo development. At the later stages, sugars and anthocyanins accumulated consistent with transcript profiles that were associated with secondary metabolism. Transcript data also indicated active signaling during later stages of fruit development. A targeted analysis of signaling networks revealed a dynamic activation and repression of almost 60 different transcripts encoding transcription factors across the course of fruit development, many of which have been demonstrated as pivotal to controlling such processes in other species. Transcripts associated with cytokinin and gibberellin were highly abundant at early fruit development, whilst those associated with ABA and ethylene tended to be more abundant at later stages. The data presented here provides an insight into fruit development in blackcurrant and provides a foundation for further work in the elucidation of the genetic basis of fruit quality.
Highlights
Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) is a perennial bush native to northern Europe, Scandinavia, and the Russian federation (Hummer and Dale, 2010)
Phenotypic analysis of developing blackcurrant fruit has provided an overview of the magnitude of physiological and metabolomic changes during fruit development, in particular, identification of major transitions in fruit growth and metabolite abundancy, accumulation patterns and insights into metabolic regulation
Compounds produced during the first period of fruit growth combine functions of protecting and deterring from fruit consumption and serve as precursors for secondary metabolism occurring later in fruit development (Supplementary Figure S4)
Summary
Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) is a perennial bush native to northern Europe, Scandinavia, and the Russian federation (Hummer and Dale, 2010). It is widely cultivated across the temperate zones of Europe, Russia and New Zealand (Brennan, 2008) where fruit are primarily used for juice production (Brennan and Graham, 2009). The first linkage map, based on amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), SSR and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, was published in 2008 and a number of loci associated with fruit quality, agronomic (Brennan et al, 2008) and pest resistance traits (Brennan et al, 2009) were defined. A great deal of sequence information has become available over the last decade, a key limitation to exploitation remains the accurate annotation of transcripts and the identity of gene function in a species which remains evolutionarily distant from more intensively studied fruit species
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