Boron stimulates fruit formation and reprograms developmental metabolism in sweet cherry

Abstract

Boron modulates a wide range of plant developmental processes; however, the regulation of early fruit development by boron remains poorly defined. We report here the physiological, anatomical, metabolic, and transcriptomic impact of pre‐flowering boron supply on the sweet cherry fruit set and development (S1–S5 stages). Our findings revealed that endogenous boron content increased in early growth stages (S1 and S2 stages) following preflowering boron exogenous application. Boron treatment resulted in increased fruit set (S1 and S2 stages) and mesocarp cell enlargement (S2 stage). Various sugars (e.g., fructose and glucose), alcohols (e.g., myo‐inositol and maltitol), organic acids (e.g., malic acid and citric acid), amino acids (e.g., valine and serine) accumulated in response to boron application during the various developmental stages (S1–S5 stages). Transcriptomic analysis at early growth (S1 and S2 stages) identified boron‐responsive genes that are mainly related to secondary metabolism, amino acid metabolism, calcium‐binding, ribosome biogenesis, sugar homeostasis and especially to photosynthesis. We found various boron‐induced/repressed genes, including those specifically involved in growth. Several heat shock proteins displayed distinct patterns during the initial growth in boron‐exposed fruit. Gene analysis also discovered several putative candidate genes like PavPIP5K9, PavWAT1, PavMIOX, PavCAD1, PavPAL1 and PavSNRK2.7, which could facilitate the investigation of the molecular rationale underlying boron function in early fruit growth. Substantial changes in the expression of numerous transcription factors, including PavbHLH25, PavATHB.12L, and PavZAT10.1,.2 were noticed in fruits exposed to boron. The current study provides a baseline of information for understanding the metabolic processes regulated by boron during sweet cherry fruit early growth and fruit development in general.

Exploring the Robustness of Causal Structures in Omics Data: A Sweet Cherry Proteogenomic Perspective

“…This could be attributed to the fact that while the transcriptional regulation in dormant buds is limited, during the transition from endodormancy to ecodormancy an explosion of transcription activity has been observed that clearly divided the ecodormancy from other dormancy stages in sweet cherries [44][45][46]. Similarly, the early stage of fruit development is characterized by elevated transcriptional activity due to continuous cell division that progressively decreases in the following stages [47,48]. Hence, the endorsement of transcriptional activity was observed.…”

Effects of Boron and Zinc Micro-Fertilizer on Growth and Quality of Jujube Trees (Ziziphus jujuba) in the Desert Area

“…In higher plants, fully developed leaves serve as the main supplier of photoassimilates, with additional green organs like fruit peels also contributing to the quality of the fruit. Michailidis et al reported the significant role of boron in sweet cherry metabolism, physiological traits, and fruit developmental changes [40]. Panjikar et al applied 0.2% zinc sulfate and 0.1% boric acid to tomatoes, reducing the fruit cracking rate by 90% [41].…”

Sweet Cherry Fruit Firmness Evaluation Using Compression Distance Methods

“…Frozen (−80 • C) ground exo-and meso-carp tissues (0.5 g) of each treatment and cultivar in triplicate (biological replicates) in 48 h after treatments were transferred into 2 mL screw-cap tubes for primary polar metabolite extraction, as previously described with slight modifications [32]. In brief, 1.4 mL pure methanol and 0.1 mL of 1 mg mL −1 adonitol were added and incubated for 10 min at 70 • C. After centrifugation (10,000× g), the supernatant was collected, and 0.75 mL chloroform and 1.5 mL dH 2 O were added.…”