New insights into the alleviating role of Melaleuca alternifolia oil on metabolites pathway disorder of grapes caused by Aspergillus niger, verified by corresponding key genes expression

Abstract

Grape berries are susceptible to Aspergillus niger (A. niger) infection during storage, leading to a significant reduction in its nutritional quality. However, most alternations in nutrient contents and related gene expression during fungal infection or treated with antimycotics remain unexplored. This work aimed to monitor and verify the metabolic changes in berries caused by A. niger or Melaleuca alternifolia oil (MAO) by using UHPLC-ESI-MS2 and Quantitative Real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Results showed that sucrose, glucose, fructose, trans-resveratrol and pterostilbene levels were down and pentose phosphate pathway, glycolysis pathway and phenylpropanoid pathway were significantly down-regulated compared with healthy berries due to A. niger infection, all of which were alleviated by MAO treated. A. niger also induced down-regulation of key genes expression associated with metabolic pathways and magnitude of down-regulation was reduced by MAO. These results provide a theoretical basis for MAO used to control the risk of A. niger-mediated diseases.