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Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(6):1773-1781; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp050
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Seasonal pattern of apoplastic solute accumulation and loss of cell turgor during ripening of Vitis vinifera fruit under field conditions

Hiroshi Wada1, Mark A. Matthews1 and Ken A. Shackel2,*

1Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
2Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, 3039 Wickson Hall, 1 Shields Avenue, 95616-8683 Davis, CA, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: kashackel{at}ucdavis.edu

Using a novel pressure membrane (PM) apparatus for the extraction of apoplastic fluid from field-grown grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berries, our hypothesis that significant apoplast solutes accumulate at the beginning of the ripening process (i.e. veraison), and that this accumulation might contribute to progressive berry softening due to a progressive loss of mesocarp cell turgor pressure (P) was tested. It was necessary to correct the solute potential ({Psi}s) of fluid collected with the PM for dilution due to the presence of a dead volume in the apparatus, but after correction, the {Psi}s obtained with the PM agreed with that obtained by low speed centrifugation. A clear decline in fruit apoplastic solute potential (Formula) began approximately 10 d prior to fruit coloration, and it was found to be coincident with a decline in mesocarp cell P and fruit elasticity (E). By late in fruit development when berry growth ceased (90 d after anthesis), both apoplast and fruit {Psi}s reached almost –4 MPa. These results support the hypothesis that a decrease in Formula is responsible for the observed loss in mesocarp cell P, and is the mechanistic cause of berry softening.

Key words: Apoplast, elasticity, matric potential, pressure-membrane, softening, symplast, veraison

Received 15 September 2008; Revised 2 November 2008 Accepted 5 February 2009


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