Transcriptome assessment in 'Red Globe' grapevine zygotic embryos during the cooling and warming phase of the cryopreservation procedure.

Cryopreservation has the potential for long-term germplasm storage. The metabolic pathways and gene regulation involved in cryopreservation procedures are still not well documented. Hence, the genetic expression profile was evaluated using RNA-Seq in zygotic embryos of grapevines subjected to cryopreservation by vitrification. Sequencing was performed on the Illumina NextSeq 500. The average alignment of reads was 96% against the reference genome. The expression profiles showed 229 genes differentially expressed (186 repressed and 46 induced). The main biological processes showing upregulated enrichment were related to nucleosome assembly, while downregulated processes were related to organ growth. The most highly repressed processes were associated with the organization of the cell wall and membrane components. The unnamed protein product and 17.3 kDa class II heat shock protein (HSP) were highly induced, while ATPase subunit 1 and expansin-A1 were repressed. The response to the cooling and warming process during cryopreservation probably indicates that the changes occurring in transcription may be related to epigenetics. In addition, the cell exhibits an increase in the reserve of nutrients while seeking to survive modestly using available energy and pausing the plant's development. Additionally, energy containment occurred to cope with the stress caused by the treatment where deactivation of components of the cell membrane was observed, possibly due to changes in fluidity caused by alterations in temperature.

Induction of the expression of defence genes in Carica papaya fruit by methyl jasmonate and low temperature treatments

The defence mechanisms that are activated by methyl jasmonate (MJ) in fruits are not well understood. In this work, we studied the expression of defence genes in papaya fruit that are induced by the exposure to MJ and/or low temperatures. The papaya fruits ‘Maradol’ were randomly divided into two groups: one group was the untreated control and the other was treated with 10-4 M of MJ. Half of the fruits from each of the two groups were stored after treatment for 5 days at 5ºC and 2 days at 20ºC. We studied the expression levels of the pdf1.1 and pdf1.2 genes by amplification from expression libraries created from the pulp and skin tissues of the papaya fruit. As a reference, the mRNA level of the 18s ribosomal gene was used. In the skin tissue, the expression levels of the pdf1.1 and pdf1.2 genes were higher immediately after MJ treatment compared to the control. Furthermore, the expression of pdf1.2 remained high after MJ treatment and subsequent storage compared to the control. It was therefore concluded that the activation of the pdf1.1 and pdf1.2 genes forms part of the molecular defence mechanism in fruits that is activated by exposure to MJ. To our knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the gene expression in papaya fruit that is induced by the exogenous application of methyl jasmonate and cold treatment.