Is transcriptomic regulation of berry development more important at night than during the day?

Markus Rienth (1) , Laurent Torregrosa (2, 3) , Mary T. Kelly (4) , Nathalie Luchaire (5, 2) , Anne Pellegrino (5) , Jérôme Grimplet (6) , Charles Romieu (2)

1 Fondation Jean Poupelain
2 UMR AGAP - Amélioration génétique et adaptation des plantes méditerranéennes et tropicales
3 Montpellier SupAgro - Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques
4 SPO - Sciences Pour l'Oenologie
5 LEPSE - Écophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress environnementaux
6 ICVV - Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y el Vino

Diurnal changes in gene expression occur in all living organisms and have been studied on model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana. To our knowledge the impact of the nycthemeral cycle on the genetic program of fleshly fruit development has been hitherto overlooked. In order to circumvent environmental changes throughout fruit development, young and ripening berries were sampled simultaneously on continuously flowering microvines acclimated to controlled circadian light and temperature changes. Gene expression profiles along fruit development were monitored during both day and night with whole genome microarrays (NimblegenH vitis 12x), yielding a total number of 9273 developmentally modulated probesets. All day-detected transcripts were modulated at night, whereas 1843 genes were night-specific. Very similar developmental patterns of gene expression were observed using independent hierarchical clustering of day and night data, whereas functional categories of allocated transcripts varied according to time of day. Many transcripts within pathways, known to be up-regulated during ripening, in particular those linked to secondary metabolism exhibited a clearer developmental regulation at night than during the day. Functional enrichment analysis also indicated that diurnally modulated genes considerably varied during fruit development, with a shift from cellular organization and photosynthesis in green berries to secondary metabolism and stress-related genes in ripening berries. These results reveal critical changes in gene expression during night development that differ from daytime development, which have not been observed in other transcriptomic studies on fruit development thus far.

Domaines: Sciences agricoles; Biologie du développement; Biologie végétale

Markus Rienth, Laurent Torregrosa, Mary T. Kelly, Nathalie Luchaire, Anne Pellegrino, et al.. Is transcriptomic regulation of berry development more important at night than during the day?. PLoS ONE, 2014, 9 (2), ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0088844⟩. ⟨hal-01189912⟩