Journal Article

Transcriptome and hormone analyses provide insights into hormonal regulation in strawberry ripening

Huo, Guotao, Gu, Tingting, Jia, Shufen, Gan, Lijun, Fu, Weimin, Ding, Jing, Wang, Lei, Huang, Xiaorong, Li, Yi

2019

Overview

Fruit ripening involves a complex interplay among plant hormones. Strawberry is a model for studies on non-climacteric fruit ripening. However, the knowledge on how plant hormones are involved in strawberry ripening is still limited. To understand hormonal actions in the ripening process, we performed genome-wide transcriptome and hormonal analysis for the five major hormones (abscisic acid and catabolites, auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, and ethylene) in achenes and receptacles (flesh) at different ripening stages of the woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca. Our results demonstrate that the pre-turning stage (a stage with white flesh and red achenes defined in this study) is the transition stage from immature to ripe fruits. The combinatorial analyses of hormone content, transcriptome data, and exogenous hormone treatment indicate that auxin is synthesized predominantly in achenes, while abscisic acid (ABA), bioactive free base cytokinins, gibberellins, and ethylene are mainly produced in receptacles. Furthermore, gibberellin may delay ripening, while ethylene and cytokinin are likely involved at later stages of the ripening process. Our results also provide additional evidence that ABA promotes ripening, while auxin delays it. Although our hormone analysis demonstrates that the total auxin in receptacles remains relatively low and unchanged during ripening, our experimental evidence further indicates that ABA likely enhances expression of the endoplasmic reticulum-localized auxin efflux carrier PIN-LIKES, which may subsequently reduce the auxin level in nucleus. This study provides a global picture for hormonal regulation of non-climacteric strawberry fruit ripening and also evidence for a possible mechanism of ABA and auxin interaction in the ripening process.

• Publisher: Springer Science + Business Media,Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Abscisic acid / Abscisic Acid - analysis / Abscisic Acid - metabolism / Agriculture / Auxins / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Catabolites / Combinatorial analysis / Cytokinins / Cytokinins - analysis / Cytokinins - metabolism / Data processing / Ecology / Efflux / Endoplasmic reticulum / Ethylene / Ethylenes - analysis / Ethylenes - metabolism / Forestry / Fragaria - genetics / Fragaria - physiology / Fragaria vesca / Fruit - genetics / Fruit - physiology / Fruits / Gene expression / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Gene sequencing / Genomes / Gibberellins / Gibberellins - analysis / Gibberellins - metabolism / hormonal regulation / Hormones / Indoleacetic Acids - analysis / Indoleacetic Acids - metabolism / Life Sciences / metabolites / Molecular modelling / non-climacteric fruits / ORIGINAL ARTICLE / Plant Growth Regulators - analysis / Plant Growth Regulators - metabolism / Plant hormones / Plant Proteins - genetics / Plant Proteins - metabolism / Plant Sciences / Receptacles / Ribonucleic acid / Ripening / RNA / sequence analysis / Strawberries / Transcriptome / Woodlands