Abstract
Fruit firmness and in particular the individual components of texture and moisture loss, are considered the key quality traits when describing blueberry fruit quality, and whilst these traits are genetically regulated, the mechanisms governing their control are not clearly understood. In this investigation, RNAseq was performed on fruits of two blueberry cultivars with very different storage properties, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Legacy’, at harvest, three weeks storage in a non-modified environment at 4 °C and after three weeks storage at 4 °C followed by three days at 21 °C, with the aim of understanding the transcriptional changes that occur during storage in cultivars with very different post-harvest fruit quality. De novo assemblies of the transcriptomes of the two cultivars were performed separately and a total of 39,335 and 41,896 unigenes for ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Legacy’ respectively were resolved. Differential gene expression analyses were grouped into four cluster profiles based on changes in transcript abundance between harvest and 24 days post-harvest. A total of 290 unigenes were up-regulated in ‘Legacy’ only, 685 were up-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 252 were up-regulated in both cultivars and 948 were down-regulated in both cultivars between harvest and 24 days post-harvest. Unigenes showing significant differential expression between harvest and following post-harvest cold-storage were grouped into classes of biological processes including stress responses, cell wall metabolism, wax metabolism, calcium metabolism, cellular components, and biological processes. In total 21 differentially expressed unigenes with a putative role in regulating the response to post-harvest cold-storage in the two cultivars were identified from the de novo transcriptome assemblies performed. The results presented provide a stable foundation from which to perform further analyses with which to functionally validate the candidate genes identified, and to begin to understand the genetic mechanisms controlling changes in firmness in blueberry fruits post-harvest.
Highlights
Blueberries belong to the genus Vaccinium which includes the cranberries, lilberries and lingonberries
Most blueberry production comes from cultivars derived from V. corymbosum L., which is native to North America, and are further sub-classified as Southern and Northern high-bush according to their chilling requirement [1]
We present analyses of gene expression changes that occurred in the fruit of two blueberry cultivars, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Legacy’ during post-harvest storage
Summary
Blueberries belong to the genus Vaccinium which includes the cranberries, lilberries and lingonberries. The fresh consumption of blueberries has significantly increased in recent years due to the release of cultivars with exceptional fruit quality which enhances the eating experience and the perception that blueberries offer nutritional and health benefits [2,3,4]. Europe is the third biggest producer of blueberries globally [5] year-round European consumer demand means blueberries are imported in the off season from Southern-hemisphere production regions including Peru and Chile. As blueberries are a fresh product, the long shipping distances from growing regions to consumer markets mean fruit is in transit for up to six weeks. Fruit softening occurs, significantly reducing fruit quality at consumption [6]
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