Generation and Analysis of ESTs in <i>V. amurensis</i> Grapevine Pericarp at Veraison

Abstract

In this study, we constructed the cDNA library of grape berry pericarp at veraison from wine grape 'Shuang Feng' (V. amurensis), and generated total 974 ESTs, representing the independent cDNA in length of around 392 672 bp, of which 710 unigenes were clustered into 97 contigs and 613 singletons based on quality of EST sequence and optimum assembly. 64.65% clones exhibited high homology to previously deposited nucleotides and/or polypeptide sequences, while the proportion of ESTs with no any significant homology in database reached 25.63%. Analysis of the unigenes resulted in the assignment of 9 specific functional classes in this research. Putative functions were identified for about 74.13% of the unigenes. By assigning them to specific function classes, we were able to highlight characteristics among different ripening phases. GO classification was performed to define the relationship among genes expressing in pericarp of wine grape berry, which were involved in three aspects including cell component, biological process and molecular function. Expression analysis of these ESTs were used to characterize potential roles of novel genes with respect to berry ripening and composition of wine grape.