BackgroundIndole-3-acetic acid (IAA), the most abundant auxin, is a growth promoter hormone involved in several developmental processes. Auxin homeostasis is very important to its function and this is achieved through the regulation of IAA biosynthesis, conjugation, degradation and transport. In grapevine, IAA plays an essential role during initial stages of berry development, since it delays fruitlet abscission by reducing the ethylene sensitivity in the abscission zone. For this reason, Continuous polar IAA transport to the pedicel is required. This kind of transport is controlled by IAA, which regulates its own movement by modifying the expression and localization of PIN-FORMED (PIN) auxin efflux facilitators that localize asymmetrically within the cell. On the other hand, the hormone gibberellin (GA) also activates the polar auxin transport by increasing PIN stability. In Vitis vinifera, fruitlet abscission occurs during the first two to three weeks after flowering. During this time, IAA and GA are present, however the role of these hormones in the control of polar auxin transport is unknown.ResultsIn this work, the use of radiolabeled IAA showed that auxin is basipetally transported during grapevine fruitlet abscission. This observation was further supported by immunolocalization of putative VvPIN proteins that display a basipetal distribution in pericarp cells. Polar auxin transport and transcripts of four putative VvPIN genes decreased in conjunction with increased abscission, and the inhibition of polar auxin transport resulted in fruit drop. GA3 and IAA treatments reduced polar auxin transport, but only GA3 treatment decreased VvPIN transcript abundance. When GA biosynthesis was blocked, IAA was capable to increase polar auxin transport, suggesting that its effect depends on GA content. Finally, we observed significant changes in the content of several IAA-related compounds during the abscission period.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence that auxin homeostasis plays a central role during grapevine initial fruit development and that GA and IAA controls auxin homeostasis by reducing polar auxin transport.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-016-0914-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In grapevine, fruit abscission is known to occur within the first two to three weeks after flowering, but the reason why some berries in a cluster persist and others abscise is not yet understood. Ethylene sensitivity modulates abscission in several fruit species, based on a mechanism where continuous polar auxin transport across the pedicel results in a decrease in ethylene perception, which prevents abscission. In grapevine, flowering takes about four to seven days in a single cluster, thus while some flowers are developing into berries, others are just starting to open. So, in this work it was assessed whether uneven flowering accounted for differences in berry abscission dependent on polar auxin transport and ethylene-related gene expression. For this, flowers that opened in a cluster were tagged daily, which allowed to separately analyze berries, regarding their ability to persist. It was found that berries derived from flowers that opened the day that flowering started – named as “first berries” – had lower abscission rate than berries derived from flowers that opened during the following days – named as “late berries”. Use of radiolabeled auxin showed that “first berries” had higher polar auxin transport, correlated with lower ethylene content and lower ethylene-related transcript abundance than “late berries”. When “first berries” were treated with a polar auxin transport inhibitor they showed higher ethylene-related transcript abundance and were more prone to abscise than control berries. This study provides new insights on fruit abscission control. Our results indicate that polar auxin transport sustains the ability of “first berries” to persist in the cluster during grapevine abscission and also suggest that this could be associated with changes in ethylene-related gene expression.