Transcriptomic and metabolmic approaches to counter the effect of Botrytis cinerea in grape berry with the application of nitric oxide

Abstract

The application of exogenous nitric oxide (NO) is convenient and safe approach to preserve fruits, though, the hidden genetic mechanism in treated grape berries is to be explored. In this study, the results depicted that the application of exogenous NO improved the shelf life of grape berries compared with the control group. The SNP treatment(400 μM) significantly increased the antioxidant enzymes activities including: POD, SOD and CAT. NO inhibited the mycelial growth of Botrytis cinerea (B. cinerea) in the grape berry. RNA-Seq data showed that NO upregulated 2,226 and downregulated 1,249 DEGs, and 300 metabolomes were identified including: NOT.vs.NOC_pos annotated 202 metabolites, NOT.vs.NOC_neg annotated 98 metabolites. The RNA-Seq data is coherent with the metabolome that STSs and CHSs expression levels were significantly increased against disease resistance and antioxidant-associated stilbene synthase pathway, and the associated metabolites content were also significantly increased. These changes led to an increase in the content of secondary metabolites such as resveratrol, which ultimately improved the shelf-life of the grapes.