Grey mold (Botrytis cinerea) is one of the most common diseases to attack grapes, causing serious damage during grape production. In the present study, the effects of light-emitting diodes (LED) on the suppression of fungal growth, defense related gene expression and accumulation of stilbenic compounds were investigated. Irradiation with blue and red light inhibited lesion development relative to fluorescent light in detached leaves. Treatment of detached leaves with LED light, especially blue and red, resulted in accumulation of stilbenic compounds and differential expression of genes involved in defense response. Among five stilbenic compounds, concentrations of trans-and cispiceid were higher than those of trans-and cis-resveratrol, as well as piceatannol in both 'Campbell Early' and 'Kyoho' leaves treated with blue and red light. The gene expression of beta-1,3 glucanase (Glu), osmotin (OSM), pathogen-related protein 4a (PR4a), protease inhibitorlike protein (PILP), thaumatin-like protein (TLP), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), and stilbene synthase (STS) were highly upregulated under blue and red LED light. The results reported here will facilitate development of alternative methods to enhance the accumulation of resveratrol compound and protect grapevine from fungal pathogen infections.

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In this study, the transcriptome of Vitis flexuosa leaves inoculated with Elsinoe ampelina was analysed to identify useful genes and elucidate their function and differential expression patterns through assembly and annotation gene ontology of data from sequencing short reads on the Illumina platform. We assembled ,121 million high-quality trimmed reads using Velvet and Oases with optimal parameters into a non-redundant set of 70,899 transcripts ($200 bp in length). The transcripts exhibited an average length of 1138 bp and a N50 length of 1695 bp, with the largest contig length being 9623 bp. Functional categorization revealed the conservation of genes involved in various molecular functions, including protein binding (21.1%) and oxidoreductase activity (11.7%), in V. flexuosa. The V. flexuosa transcript set generated in this study will serve as a resource for gene discovery and development of functional molecular markers.

Recent studies have shown that the expression of genes related to the synthesis of flavonoids, such as the phenylalanineammonia lyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), and stilbene synthase (STS) genes were induced in response to different signaling molecules and Botrytis cinerea inoculation in grapevine leaves. Therefore, in the present study, the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of STS genes from cultivars Campbell Early and Kyoho were compared. The deduced amino acid sequences of VlKSTS12, VlKSTS11, VICESTS13, and VlKSTS1 showed 100 % homology to VlCESTS12, VlCESTS11, VICESTS24, and VlKSTS13, respectively, in Campbell Early and Kyoho. In addition, the maximum transcription was observed 6 h after chemical treatments. In Campbell Early, the transcription of PAL, CHS, and CHI was higher in leaves treated with ethephon than in those treated with hydrogen peroxide, methyl jasmonate, and salicylic acid. The PAL, CHS, and CHI genes were more induced in Campbell Early than in Kyoho. The mRNA content of STS genes started to increase at 6 h and peaked at 48 h after the treatments. In Kyoho leaves, the expression of STSs was highly up-regulated at 1 h and peaked at 6 h after the treatments. The expression of the STS genes was induced in both the cultivars in leaves inoculated with B. cinerea. STS11 and STS12 showed differential expression patterns from STS1, STS24, and STS13 in Campbell Early leaves inoculated with B. cinerea.

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Recently, the genetic modification of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has led to increased differentiation potential. For the therapeutic application of genetically modified MSCs, it is crucial to evaluate their characteristics and safety. In this study, we investigated the effects of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) gene transfer on the characteristics and biodistribution of human MSCs. Lentiviral-mediated BMP2 transduction to MSCs enhanced osteocyte differentiation and decreased adipocyte differentiation. Although there is no significant difference in cell proliferation capacity, MSCs transduced BMP2 proliferate somewhat higher than nontransduced or GFP transduced MSCs. No significant changes were observed in surface antigen expression in genetically modified MSCs. In vivo transplantation of lentiviral-mediated BMP2 gene transferred MSCs to nude mice did not result in tumor formation. To evaluate the biodistribution of genetically modified cells, MSCs carrying BMP2 were injected into the tail vein of femur fractured mice. The introduced MSCs were detected in the spleen, testis and fractured femur 28 days post-implantation. These findings suggest that diverse safety tests for genetically modified MSCs should be considered, particularly when a lentivirus mediated gene transfer method is used.

Glutathione S-transferase (GST) genes from transcripts of Vitis flexuosa leaves infected with Elsinoe ampelina were characterized and analyzed for their expression using primers based on specific regions. Comparison of deduced amino acid sequences from GST transcripts of V. flexuosa showed that the score of the deduced amino acid identity ranged from 43.38% (Vf GST26625 and Vf GST774) to 6.67% (Vf GST13892 and Vf GST774). Primary and secondary structure analysis was performed using the ProtParam and Self-Optimized Prediction Method with Alignment software. A phylogenetic tree was constructed from the GST proteins by the neighbor joining method using MEGA 6.0 to investigate the relationship among Vf GST, VvGST, and At GST proteins. To evaluate the differential expression pattern of GST genes by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), primers specific to unique regions in each gene were obtained by alignment of the sequences. Real-time PCR revealed that GST genes were expressed differentially in the leaves of V. flexuosa infected with Botrytis cinerea, E. ampelina, and Rhizobium vitis. The expression of Vf GST26625 was up-regulated, while that of others were down-regulated among five GSTs in all grapevine leaves inoculated with each pathogen. The results provided herein improve our understanding of defense responses to various pathogen attacks in grapevines.