Aroma is an important part of quality in table grape, but the key aroma compounds and the aroma series of table grapes remains unknown. In this paper, we identified 67 aroma compounds in 20 table grape cultivars; 20 in pulp and 23 in skin were active compounds. C6 compounds were the basic background volatiles, but the aroma contents of pulp juice and skin depended mainly on the levels of esters and terpenes, respectively. Most obviously, ‘Kyoho’ grapevine series showed high contents of esters in pulp, while Muscat/floral cultivars showed abundant monoterpenes in skin. For the aroma series, table grapes were characterized mainly by herbaceous, floral, balsamic, sweet and fruity series. The simple and visualizable aroma profiles were established using aroma fingerprints based on the aromatic series. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the aroma profiles of pulp juice, skin and whole berries could be classified into 5, 3, and 5 groups, respectively. Combined with sensory evaluation, we could conclude that fatty and balsamic series were the preferred aromatic series, and the contents of their contributors (β-ionone and octanal) may be useful as indicators for the improvement of breeding and cultivation measures for table grapes.

Recent findings have revealed that the protein gasdermin D (GSDMD) plays key roles in cell pyroptosis. GSDMD binds lipids and forms pore structures to induce pyroptosis upon microbial infection and associated danger signals. However, detailed structural information for GSDMD remains unknown. Here, we report the crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of human GSDMD (GSDMD-C) at 2.64-Å resolution. The first loop on GSDMD-C inserts into the N-terminal domain (GSDMD-N), which helps stabilize the conformation of the full-length GSDMD. Substitution of this region by a short linker sequence increased levels of cell death. Mutants F283A and F283R can increase protein heterogeneity in vitro and are capable of undergoing cell pyroptosis in 293T cells. The small-angle X-ray-scattering envelope of human GSDMD is consistent with the modeled GSDMD structure and mouse GSDMA3 structure, which suggests that GSDMD adopts an autoinhibited conformation in solution. The positive potential surface of GSDMD-N covered by GSDMD-C is exposed after being released from the autoinhibition state and can form high-order oligomers via a charge-charge interaction. Furthermore, by mapping different regions of GSDMD, we determined that one short segment is sufficient to kill bacteria in vitro and can efficiently inhibit cell growth in and These findings reveal that GSDMD-C acts as an auto-inhibition executor and GSDMD-N could form pore structures via a charge-charge interaction upon cleavage by caspases during cell pyroptosis.

ABA plays a crucial role in controlling several ripening-associated processes in grape berries. The soluble proteins named as PYR (pyrabactin resistant)/PYL (PYR-like)/RCAR (regulatory component of ABA receptor) family have been characterized as ABA receptors. Here, the function of a grape PYL1 encoding gene involved in the response to ABA was verified through heterologous expression. The expression level of VlPYL1 was highest in grape leaf and fruit tissues of the cultivar Kyoho, and the expression of VlPYL1 was increased during fruit development and showed a reduction in ripe berries. Over-expression of VlPYL1 enhances ABA sensitivity in Arabidopsis. Using the transient overexpression technique, the VlPYL1 gene was over-expressed in grape berries. Up-regulation of the VlPYL1 gene not only promoted anthocyanin accumulation but also induced a set of ABA-responsive gene transcripts, including ABF2 and BG3. Although tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-induced gene silencing (VIGS) was not successfully applied in the “Kyoho” grape, the application of the transient overexpression technique in grape fruit could be used as a novel tool for studying grape fruit development.

Key Points Targeting of both CD20 and Flt3 proteins by CrossMab technology can efficiently evoke tumor-specific T-cell immunity. Induction of tumor-specific T-cell response by CD20–Flt3 ligand extracellular domain BiFP provides a long-lasting protection from tumor recurrence.

This research aimed to comparatively evaluate the influences of root restriction (RR) cultivation and traditional cultivation (RC) on grape berry skin metabolomics using a non-targeted metabolomics method. Two-hundred-and-ninety-one metabolites were annotated and the kinetics analyses showed that berry skin metabolome is stage- and cultivation-dependent. Our results showed that RR influences significantly the metabolomes of berry skin tissues, particularly on secondary metabolism, and that this effect is more obvious at pre-veraison stage, which was evidenced by the early and fast metabolic shift from primary to secondary metabolism. Altogether, this study provided an insight into metabolic adaptation of berry skin to RR stress and expanded general understanding of berry development.