Transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveal phenotype formation differences between russet and non-russet apples

Ziqi Wang; Shasha Liu; Wenping Huo; Min Chen; Yugang Zhang; Shenghui Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1057226

Transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveal phenotype formation differences between russet and non-russet apples

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Nov 8:13:1057226. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1057226. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ziqi Wang^{1

2}, Shasha Liu^{1

2}, Wenping Huo^{1

2}, Min Chen³, Yugang Zhang^{1

2}, Shenghui Jiang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Horticulture, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China.
² Engineering Laboratory of Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of Shandong Province, Qingdao, China.
³ Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, China.

Abstract

The apple is an economically important fruit, and fruit russeting is not conducive to its appearance. Although studies have examined fruit russeting, its mechanism remains unclear. Two apple strains of the F₁ hybrid population derived from 'Fuji' and 'Golden Delicious' were used in this study. We found that the skin of russet apples was rough and fissured, while that of non-russet apples was smooth and waxy. Chemical staining, LC- and GC-MS showed that both lignin and suberin were increased in russet apple skin. Meanwhile, genes involved in lignin and suberin synthetic pathways were upregulated in russet apple skin. Additionally, we found many differentially expressed genes (DEGs¹) involved in hormone biosynthesis and signaling and stress responses in the two apple strains. We found that WRKY13 may influence russeting by regulating lignin synthesis. Our study identified several candidate metabolites and genes, which will provide a good foundation for further research.

Keywords: apple; fruit russeting; metabolome; suberin; transcriptome.