Effects of genetic manipulation of alcohol dehydrogenase levels on the response to stress and the synthesis of secondary metabolites in grapevine leaves
2006
Tesniere, Catherine | Torregrosa, Laurent | Pradal, Martine | Souquet, Jean-Marc | Gilles, Christine | Santos, Karine dos | Chatelet, Philippe | Gunata, Ziya
The functional role of Adh in regulating susceptibility to abiotic stress and the synthesis of secondary metabolites was investigated in transgenic grapevine plants over- and underexpressing alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh). Plants were transformed with gene constructs containing a sense or antisense orientated grapevine VvAdh2 cDNA under the constitutive cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. Plants transformed with either antisense orientation or the Adh-less construct displayed a low but detectable constitutive ADH activity, whereas plants transformed with the sense-expressed transgene showed a significantly higher (100-fold) ADH activity than the control. Compared with the control, the sense transgene induced an overexpression of VvAdh2 transcripts, whereas a reduced VvAdh2 expression was detected in antisense transformants. Grapevine plants overexpressing Adh displayed a lower sucrose content, a higher degree of polymerization of proanthocyanidins, and a generally increased content of volatile compounds, mainly in carotenoid- and shikimate-derived volatiles. In general, no significant differences between sense/antisense transformants were observed with regard to carotenoid and chlorophyll contents, suggesting a strong metabolic regulation of the synthesis of these compounds.
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