Plant hormones (Literature sources on phytohormones and plant signalling)

Horticultural Plant Journal (2023)

Abstract: "Apples often exhibit bitter pits in response to metabolic disorders during ripening and storage; however, the mechanisms underlying the bitter pit (BP) development remain unclear. Here, metabolome and transcriptome analyses were performed to investigate BP pulp of ‘Fuji’. Two auxin-response genes, MdGH3.1 and MdSAUR36, were screened. Their expression as well as the auxin content in BP pulp were found to be higher than those in healthy pulp (P < 0.01). In the field, excess CO(NH2)2 increased the incidence of BP. Moreover, the auxin content and MdGH3.1 expression increased in apples after nitrogen fertilization. On Day 30 before harvest, the two genes were transiently transferred to the fruit, and 20.69% and 23.21% of BP fruits were harvested. After 10 μmol · L-1 auxin was infiltrated at low pressure into postharvest fruit, the increase in MdGH3.1 expression occurred earlier than that in MdSAUR36. MdGH3.1 increased the expression of MdSAUR36, but MdSAUR36 did not increase expression of MdGH3.1. Therefore, we suggest that MdGH3.1 acts upstream of MdSAUR36 during BP formation and that these genes induce BP formation by regulating auxin and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis."