Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Università 100, Naples, 80055, Italy.
Biotechnology Laboratory, Casaccia Research Centre, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Development (ENEA), Rome, 00123, Italy.
BMC Plant Biol. 2023 May 6;23(1):241. doi: 10.1186/s12870-023-04251-6.
The biochemical makeup of grape berries at harvest is essential for wine quality and depends on a fine transcriptional regulation occurring during berry development. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive survey of transcriptomic and metabolomic changes occurring in different berry tissues and developmental stages of the ancient grapes Aglianico and Falanghina to establish the patterns of the secondary metabolites contributing to their wine aroma and investigate the underlying transcriptional regulation.
Over two hundred genes related to aroma were found, of which 107 were differentially expressed in Aglianico and 99 in Falanghina. Similarly, 68 volatiles and 34 precursors were profiled in the same samples. Our results showed a large extent of transcriptomic and metabolomic changes at the level of isoprenoids (terpenes, norisoprenoids), green leaf volatiles (GLVs), and amino acid pathways, although the terpenoid metabolism was the most distinctive for Aglianico, and GLVs for Falanghina. Co-expression analysis that integrated metabolome and transcriptome data pinpointed 25 hub genes as points of biological interest in defining the metabolic patterns observed. Among them, three hub genes encoding for terpenes synthases (VvTPS26, VvTPS54, VvTPS68) in Aglianico and one for a GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (VvGFP) in Falanghina were selected as potential active player underlying the aroma typicity of the two grapes.
Our data improve the understanding of the regulation of aroma-related biosynthetic pathways of Aglianico and Falanghina and provide valuable metabolomic and transcriptomic resources for future studies in these varieties.
葡萄在收获时的生化成分对葡萄酒的质量至关重要，这取决于浆果发育过程中精细的转录调控。在这项研究中，我们对古老的 Aglianico 和 Falanghina 葡萄的不同浆果组织和发育阶段的转录组和代谢组变化进行了全面调查，以确定对其葡萄酒香气有贡献的次生代谢物模式，并研究其潜在的转录调控。
发现了 200 多个与香气相关的基因，其中 107 个在 Aglianico 中差异表达，99 个在 Falanghina 中差异表达。同样，在相同的样本中也对 68 种挥发性物质和 34 种前体物质进行了分析。我们的结果表明，在异戊二烯（萜类、类异戊二烯）、绿叶挥发物（GLVs）和氨基酸途径水平上，存在很大程度的转录组和代谢组变化，尽管萜类代谢是 Aglianico 最具特色的，GLVs 则是 Falanghina 最具特色的。整合代谢组和转录组数据的共表达分析确定了 25 个枢纽基因作为定义观察到的代谢模式的生物学感兴趣点。其中，Aglianico 中三个编码萜烯合酶的枢纽基因（VvTPS26、VvTPS54、VvTPS68）和 Falanghina 中一个 GDP-L-半乳糖磷酸化酶基因（VvGFP）被选为这两种葡萄香气特征的潜在活性参与者。
我们的数据提高了对 Aglianico 和 Falanghina 香气相关生物合成途径调控的理解，并为这两个品种的未来研究提供了有价值的代谢组学和转录组学资源。
