Transcriptome and metabolites analysis of water-stressed grape berries at different growth stages

Drought is one of the main abiotic factors affecting grape quality. However, the impacts of drought stress on sugar and related gene expression during grape berry ripening remain unclear. In this experiment, the grapes were subjected to different levels of continuous water stress from 45 to 120 days after flowering (DAA) to study the changes in berry sugar content and the expression of genes related to sugar metabolism under different water stresses. Data supported that glucose, fructose, sucrose, and soluble sugars increased from 45 DAA. Combined with previous research results, T1, T2, and Ct grape berries with 60 ~ 75 DAA and large differences in sucrose, fructose, glucose and soluble sugars compared with the Ct were selected for RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Through transcriptome analysis, 4471 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened, and 65 genes in photosynthesis, ABA signaling pathway and photosynthetic carbon metabolism pathway were analyzed further by qRT-PCR. At 60 DAA, the relative expression levels of CAB1R, PsbP, SNRK2, and PYL9 were significantly upregulated in response to water stress, while AHK1, At4g02290 were down-regulated. At 75 DAA, the relative expression levels of ELIP1, GoLS2, At4g02290, Chi5, SAPK, MAPKKK17, NHL6, KINB2, and AHK1 were upregulated. And CAB1R, PsbA, GoLS1, SnRK2, PYL9, and KINGL were significantly downregulated under moderate water stress. In addition, PsbA expression was down-regulated in response to water stress. These results will help us to fully understand the potential connections between glucose metabolism and gene expression in grapes under drought stress.