Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) analysis of the ripening Vitis amurensis cv. Shuang Hong berry skins

Abstract

Vitis amurensis is a valuable resource for wine production. Ripening of the grape berry is the key phase which determines the composition of wine. To better understand the gene expression that manifest in V. amurensis berry skins during the ripening, cDNA library of V. amurensis berry skins was constructed. A total of 935 high quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were obtained from the library. These ESTs represent 636 unigenes, including 108 contigs and 528 singletons. The EST analysis was performed and genes were assigned to functional categories according to their primary BLAST match. Of these 25.35% were involved with metabolism, 6.27% with cell rescue and defense, 6.84% energy, 11.68% protein synthesis, 18.8% protein activity regulation, 11.11% cell structure, 7.98% transport, 6.27% transcription and the remaining 5.7% were signal transduction. The generated ESTs were characterized by the gene ontology analysis and were categorized according to its cellular component, molecular function and biological process. In the cDNA library, some genes are relevant to the biosynthesis of anthocyanins, while some genes are related to grape berry maturation.