VvANR silencing promotes expression of VvANS and accumulation of anthocyanin in grape berries

• Published in: Protoplasma Vol. 259; no. 3; pp. 743 - 753
• Main Authors: Yang, Bo, Wei, Ying, Liang, Changmei, Guo, Jianyong, Niu, Tiequan, Zhang, Pengfei, Wen, Pengfei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01-05-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anthocyanins; Anthocyanins - metabolism; Berries; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell Biology; Enzymatic activity; Enzymes; Fruit - genetics; Fruit - metabolism; Fruits; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene silencing; Life Sciences; Original Article; Phenotypes; Plant Sciences; Transcriptional Activation; Vitaceae; Vitis - metabolism; Zoology; Flavan-3-ol; Grape berries; VIGS; VvANS; VvANR
• ISSN: 0033-183X; 1615-6102
• DOI: 10.1007/s00709-021-01698-y

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) technology was applied to silence
VvANR
in cv. Zaoheibao grape berries, and the effects of
VvANR
silencing on berries phenotype; gene expression level of
ANS
,
LAR1
,
LAR2
, and
UFGT
; enzyme activity of ANS; and accumulations of anthocyanin and flavan-3-ol were investigated. At the third day after treatment, the
VvANR
silenced grape berries began to turn red slightly, which was 2 days earlier than that of the control group. And the flavan-3-ol content in
VvANR
-silenced grape berries had been remarkable within 1 to 5 days, the ANR enzyme activity in
VvANR
-silenced grapes extremely significantly decreased in 3 days, and LAR enzyme activity also decreased, but the difference was not striking. The ANS enzyme activity of the transformed berries was significantly higher than that of the control after 3 days of infection, and it was exceedingly significantly higher than that of the control after 5 to 10 days. The content of anthocyanin in transformed berries increased of a very marked difference within 3 to 15 days. pTRV2-
ANR
infection resulted in an extremely significant decrease in the expression of
VvANR
gene, and the expression of
VvLAR1, VvLAR2, VvMYBPA1, VvMYBPA2
, and
VvDFR
were also down-regulated. However, the expression of
VvANS
and
VvUFGT
was up-regulated significantly. After
VvANR
silencing via VIGS,
VvANR
expression in grape berries was extremely significantly decreased, resulting in decreased ANR enzyme activity and flavan-3-ol content; berries turned red and deeper in advance. In addition,
VvANR
silencing can induce up-regulation of
VvANS
and
VvUFGT
expression, significantly increase ANS enzyme activity, and increase of anthocyanin accumulation.