Poster: Genomic & proteomic resources

Abs # 899: Microarray gene expression profiling studies of abiotically stressed grapevine Vitis vinifera L.

Presenter:	Bohlman, Marlene C., cbohlman@unr.edu
Authors	Bohlman, Marlene C. (A)   Ergul, Ali  (B)   Tatersall, Elizabeth A. R.  (A)   Tillett, Richard L.  (A)   Figueroa, Rubi  (A)   Kabuloglu, Elif  (A)   Cushman, Mary Ann  (A)   Spreeman, Kitty L.  (A)   Schlauch, Karen  (C)   Mendes, Pedro  (D)   Cramer, Grant R.  (A)   Cushman, John C.  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Department of Biochemistry, University of Nevada, Reno (B): Institute of Biotechnology, University of Ankara (C): Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech (D): Center for Biomedical Genomics and Informatics, George Mason University

Expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing efforts within the last two years have resulted in a significant increase in the public availability of sequence information for Vitis vinifera. The current National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) V. vinifera dbEST database contains more than 145,000 ESTs (January 2004). These ESTs were generated from 61 libraries representing a wide range of plant developmental stages, organs, and genotypes, as well as grapevines challenged to various biotic and abiotic stresses. These libraries have been organized into several annotated “unigene” databases (http://cgf.ucdavis.edu; http://www.tigr.org/tdb/tgi/vvgi). In March 2004, a public Affymetrix microarray for V. vinifera and related Vitis species will be available that contains more than 11,000 distinct probe sets representing approximately 30% of the grape transcriptome. Grapevines exposed to regulated water-deficit irrigation produce berries with pronounced changes in metabolic profiles with little change in grape production and quality. These changes are associated with improved wine quality and human health benefits. Results from transcriptional profiling experiments of V. vinifera (Cabernet sauvignon) subjected to long-term water deficit and salt stress will be reported. Our long-term goal is to understand how changes in gene expression in leaves and fruit correlate with changes in protein expression and metabolite composition associated with improvements in color, aroma, and flavor components of wine. This work is expected to lead to the identification of genes that contribute to abiotic stress tolerance and wine quality characteristics. Supported by the American Vineyard Foundation and NSF.