SummaryAlthough great progress has been made towards understanding the role of abscisic acid (ABA) and sucrose in fruit ripening, the mechanisms underlying the ABA and sucrose signalling pathways remain elusive. In this study, transcription factor ABA‐stress‐ripening (ASR), which is involved in the transduction of ABA and sucrose signalling pathways, was isolated and analysed in the nonclimacteric fruit, strawberry and the climacteric fruit, tomato. We have identified four ASR isoforms in tomato and one in strawberry. All ASR sequences contained the ABA stress‐ and ripening‐induced proteins and water‐deficit stress‐induced proteins (ABA/WDS) domain and all ASR transcripts showed increased expression during fruit development. The expression of the ASR gene was influenced not only by sucrose and ABA, but also by jasmonic acid (JA) and indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA), and these four factors were correlated with each other during fruit development. ASR bound the hexose transporter (HT) promoter, which contained a sugar box that activated downstream gene expression. Overexpression of the ASR gene promoted fruit softening and ripening, whereas RNA interference delayed fruit ripening, as well as affected fruit physiological changes. Change in ASR gene expression influenced the expression of several ripening‐related genes such as CHS,CHI, F3H,DFR,ANS,UFGT,PG,PL,EXP1/2,XET16, Cel1/2 and PME. Taken together, this study may provide new evidence on the important role of ASR in cross‐signalling between ABA and sucrose to regulate tomato and strawberry fruit ripening. The findings of this study also provide new insights into the regulatory mechanism underlying fruit development.

Grapevine is an important and extensively grown fruit crop, which is severely hampered by drought worldwide. So, comprehending the impact of drought on grapevine genetic resources is necessary. In the present study, RNA-sequencing was executed using cDNA libraries constructed from both drought-stress and control plants. Results generated 12,451 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), out of which 8,021 genes were up-regulated, and 4,430 were down-regulated. Further physiological and biochemical investigations were also performed to validate the biological processes associated with the development of grapevine in response to drought stress. Results also revealed that decline in the rate of stomatal conductance, in turn, decrease the photosynthetic activity and CO2 assimilation in the grapevine leaves. Reactive oxygen species, including stress enzymes and their related proteins, and secondary metabolites were also activated in the present study. Likewise, various hormones also induced in response to drought stress. Overall, the present study concludes that these DEGs play both positive and negative roles in drought tolerance by regulating various biological pathways of grapevine. Nevertheless, our findings have provided valuable gene information for future studies of abiotic stress in grapevine and various other fruit crops.

Fruit ripening is a complex process that is regulated by a signal network. Whereas the regulatory mechanism of abscisic acid has been studied extensively in non-climacteric fruit, little is know about other signaling pathways involved in this process. In this study, we performed that plant hormone jasmonic acid plays an important role in grape fruit coloring and softening by increasing the transcription levels of several ripening-related genes, such as the color-related genes PAL1, DFR, CHI, F3H, GST, CHS, and UFGT; softening-related genes PG, PL, PE, Cell, EG1, and XTH1; and aroma-related genes Ecar, QR, and EGS. Lastly, the fruit anthocyanin, phenol, aroma, and cell wall materials were changed. Jasmonic acid positively regulated its biosynthesis pathway genes LOS, AOS, and 12-oxophytodienoate reductase (OPR) and signal pathway genes COI1 and JMT. RNA interference of grape jasmonic acid pathway gene VvAOS in strawberry fruit appeared fruit un-coloring phenotypes; exogenous jasmonic acid rescued this phenotypes. On the contrary, overexpression of grape jasmonic acid receptor VvCOI1 in the strawberry fruit accelerated the fruit-ripening process and induced some plant defense-related gene expression level. Furthermore, jasmonic acid treatment or strong jasmonic acid signal pathway in strawberry fruit make the fruit resistance against Botrytis cinerea.

Anthocyanins are naturally occurring compounds, member of the flavonoid groups of photochemical, involved in defense against the damaging effects of UV irradiation in plants and protect from many oxidants. The anthocyanins, group of pigments are relatively small and diverse flavonoid family in nature, and responsible for the attractive colors, red and purple to blue in many plants. Presence of pigments in flowers and fruits seems to provide attraction for pollination and aiding seed distribution, it also provides antiviral and antimicrobial activities, however their occurrence in the vacuoles remains ambiguous. During the last decades, anthocyanin gene expression and many structural genes encoding enzymes has been extensively studied in fruits, flowers and leaves in many plants.In addition, the genetic regulating mechanism, their biosynthesis and other factors involved are well described. The biosynthesis pathway of anthocyanin is a complex with diverse branches responsible to produce variety of metabolites. In general Anthocyanins, production through the flavonoid path, are a class of vital phenolic compounds. Over six thousand diverse anthocyanins have been reported from various species. So far, the potential health benefits of anthocyanins have been reported in the contexts of their antioxidant properties. Anthocyanins are also extensively studied for their several positive effects on body. Based on these facts, the present review briefly summarizes recent advances, highlighting the importance of biosynthetic pathway of anthocyanins, thus will serve to encourage advance investigation in this field.

The reproductive transition is an important event that is crucial for plant survival and reproduction. Relative to the thorough understanding of the vegetative phase transition in angiosperms, a little is known about this process in perennial conifers. To gain insight into the molecular basis of the regulatory mechanism in conifers, we used temporal dynamic transcriptome analysis with samples from seven different ages of Pinus tabuliformis to identify a gene module substantially associated with aging. The results first demonstrated that the phase change in P. tabuliformis occurred as an unexpectedly rapid transition rather than a slow, gradual progression. The age-related gene module contains 33 transcription factors and was enriched in genes that belong to the MADS (MCMl, AGAMOUS, DEFICIENS, SRF)-box family, including six SOC1-like genes and DAL1 and DAL10. Expression analysis in P. tabuliformis and a late-cone-setting P. bungeana mutant showed a tight association between PtMADS11 and reproductive competence. We then confirmed that MADS11 and DAL1 coordinate the aging pathway through physical interaction. Overexpression of PtMADS11 and PtDAL1 partially rescued the flowering of 35S::miR156A and spl1,2,3,4,5,6 mutants in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), but only PtMADS11 could rescue the flowering of the ft-10 mutant, suggesting PtMADS11 and PtDAL1 play different roles in flowering regulatory networks in Arabidopsis. The PtMADS11 could not alter the flowering phenotype of soc1-1-2, indicating it may function differently from AtSOC1 in Arabidopsis. In this study, we identified the MADS11 gene in pine as a regulatory mediator of the juvenile-to-adult transition with functions differentiated from the angiosperm SOC1.