scholarly journals De novo sequencing and analysis of the transcriptome of two highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivars ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Legacy’ at harvest and following post-harvest storage

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255139
Author(s):  
María Cárcamo de la Concepción ◽  
Daniel James Sargent ◽  
Nada Šurbanovski ◽  
Richard John Colgan ◽  
Marco Moretto

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.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carcamo de la Concepcion ◽  
Daniel James Sargent ◽  
Nada Surbanovski ◽  
Richard Colgan ◽  
Marco Moretto

Abstract Background: 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 oC and after three weeks storage at 4 oC followed by three days at 21 oC, with the aim of understanding the transcriptional changes that occur during storage in cultivars with very different post-harvest fruit quality.Results: 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 264 unigenes were up-regulated in ‘Legacy’ and down-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 103 were down-regulated in ‘Legacy’ and up-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 43 were up-regulated in both cultivars and 355 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.Conclusions: 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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carcamo de la Concepcion ◽  
Daniel James Sargent ◽  
Nada Surbanovski ◽  
Richard Colgan ◽  
Marco Moretto

Abstract Background: 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 oC and after three weeks storage at 4 oC followed by three days at 21 oC, with the aim of understanding the transcriptional changes that occur during storage in cultivars with very different post-harvest fruit quality.Results: 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 264 unigenes were up-regulated in ‘Legacy’ and down-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 103 were down-regulated in ‘Legacy’ and up-regulated in ‘Bluecrop’, 43 were up-regulated in both cultivars and 355 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.Conclusions: 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.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang ◽  
ShuJuan Ji ◽  
BaoDong Wei ◽  
Shunchang Cheng ◽  
Jia Hao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Blueberry ( Vaccinium spp. ) is a small berry with high economic value. Although cold storage can extend the storage time of blueberry to more than 60 days, it leads to chilling injury (CI) displayed as pedicle pits; and the samples of 0°C-30 days was the critical point of chilling injury (CI). However, little is known about the mechanism and the molecular basis response to cold stress in blueberry have not been explained definitely.Methods To comprehensively reveal the CI mechanisms in response to cold stress, we performed high-throughput RNA Seq analysis to investigate the gene regulation network in blueberries at different storage temperatures (20°C and 0°C) in this study. At the same time, the pitting and decay rate, electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline content were also measured.Results High-throughput transcriptome sequences were assembled into 35,060 unique transcripts with an N50 length of 1,348bp. A total of 1,167 up-regulated and 685 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were annotated and classified between the CI group and control. Forty-five cold-induced transcription factor (TF) families containing 1,023 TFs were identified. The DEGs indicated in biological processes such as stress responses; cell wall metabolism; abscisic acid, gibberellin, membrane lipid, energy metabolism, cellular components, and molecular functions were significantly responsed to low temperature storage. The transcriptional level of 40 DEGs were verified by qRT-PCR.Conclusions The harvest cold storage leads serious CI in blueberries, which substantially decreases the quality, storability and consumer acceptance. In our research, the physiological changes during the cold storage were determined; the biological processes such as stress responses, hormone metabolic processes were significantly affected by CI. Overall, the results obtained here are valuable for preventing pitting under cold storage and could serve as new targets for enhancing blueberry fruit post harvest storage.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang ◽  
ShuJuan Ji ◽  
BaoDong Wei ◽  
Shunchang Cheng ◽  
Jia Hao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) is a small berry with high economic value. Although cold storage can extend the storage time of blueberry to more than 60 days, it leads to chilling injury (CI) displayed as pedicle pits; and the samples of 0°C-30 days was the critical point of CI. However, little is known about the mechanism and the molecular basis response to cold stress in blueberry have not been explained definitely. Methods: To comprehensively reveal the CI mechanisms in response to cold stress, we performed high-throughput RNA Seq analysis to investigate the gene regulation network in 0d (control) and 30d chilled blueberry. At the same time, the pitting and decay rate, electrolyte leakage (EL), malondialdehyde (MDA) proline content and GSH content were also measured.Results: Two cDNA libraries from 0d (control) and 30d chilled samples were constructed and sequenced, generating a total of 35,060 unigenes with an N50 length of 1,348bp. Of these, 1852 were differentially expressed, with 1,167 upregulated and 685 downregulated. Forty-five cold-induced transcription factor (TF) families containing 1,023 TFs were identified. The DEGs indicated in biological processes such as stress responses; cell wall metabolism; abscisic acid, gibberellin, membrane lipid, energy metabolism, cellular components, and molecular functions were significantly responsed to cold storage. The transcriptional level of 40 DEGs were verified by qRT-PCR. Conclusions: The postharvest cold storage leads serious CI in blueberry, which substantially decreases the quality, storability and consumer acceptance. The MDA content, proline content, EL increased and the GSH content decreased in this chilled process. The biological processes such as stress responses, hormone metabolic processes were significantly affected by CI. Overall, the results obtained here are valuable for preventing CI under cold storage and could help to perfect the lack of the genetic information of non-model plant species.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang ◽  
ShuJuan Ji ◽  
BaoDong Wei ◽  
Shunchang Cheng ◽  
Jia Hao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Blueberry ( Vaccinium spp. ) is a small berry with high economic value. Although cold storage can extend the storage time of blueberry to more than 60 days, it leads to chilling injury (CI) displayed as pedicle pits; and the samples of 0°C-30 days was the critical point of CI. However, little is known about the mechanism and the molecular basis response to cold stress in blueberry have not been explained definitely. Methods: To comprehensively reveal the CI mechanisms in response to cold stress, we performed high-throughput RNA Seq analysis to investigate the gene regulation network in 0d (control) and 30d chilled blueberry. At the same time, the pitting and decay rate, electrolyte leakage (EL), malondialdehyde (MDA) proline content and GSH content were also measured. Results: Two cDNA libraries from 0d (control) and 30d chilled samples were constructed and sequenced, generating a total of 35,060 unigenes with an N50 length of 1,348bp. Of these, 1852 were differentially expressed, with 1,167 upregulated and 685 downregulated. Forty-five cold-induced transcription factor (TF) families containing 1,023 TFs were identified. The DEGs indicated in biological processes such as stress responses; cell wall metabolism; abscisic acid, gibberellin, membrane lipid, energy metabolism, cellular components, and molecular functions were significantly responsed to cold storage. The transcriptional level of 40 DEGs were verified by qRT-PCR. Conclusions: The postharvest cold storage leads serious CI in blueberry, which substantially decreases the quality, storability and consumer acceptance. The MDA content, proline content, EL increased and the GSH content decreased in this chilled process. The biological processes such as stress responses, hormone metabolic processes were significantly affected by CI. Overall, the results obtained here are valuable for preventing CI under cold storage and could help to perfect the lack of the genetic information of non-model plant species.


Author(s):  
Kerry R. Everett

Abstract The avocado (Persea americana Mill.) is from an ancient plant lineage, the Lauraceae. Although evidence for human consumption dates back 15,000 years, commercialisation has occurred only over the last 150 years. The most commonly traded variety was first the green-skin 'Fuerte' (green as it ripens), and more recently 'Hass', on which skin darkens when ripe. Production has been increasing worldwide, and currently about 64 countries produce avocados. The range of climates is from arid to very high rainfall and from tropical to temperate. The minimum daily temperatures are above 5°C in all avocado-growing regions because of frost sensitivity. Apart from avocado sunblotch viroid (ASBVd), most avocado fruit diseases are caused by fungi. Some fungi cause visible symptoms resulting in unmarketable fruit, and other infections in the orchard are symptomless. These symptomless infections express as rots after harvest during cold storage, transport and ripening. Most post-harvest pathogens infect through both the body of the fruit and the stem-end wound, while a few infect only through the stem-end wound. The geographic distribution of these fungi varies possibly because of differences in environmental requirements and effective quarantine measures during trade. Fungal rots can be reduced by the application of fungicides in the orchard, removing inoculum residing in dead branches and mummified fruit in the canopy, ensuring high-calcium levels in the fruit flesh are maintained, careful post-harvest handling and selling fruit as soon after harvest as possible. Some post-harvest fungicides can be effective.


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