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. 2021 Sep 8;10(9):1861.
doi: 10.3390/plants10091861.

Moderate Salinity Stress Affects Expression of Main Sugar Metabolism and Transport Genes and Soluble Carbohydrate Content in Ripe Fig Fruits (Ficus carica L. cv. Dottato)

Anna Mascellani  1   2 , Lucia Natali  1   3 , Andrea Cavallini  1   3 , Flavia Mascagni  1   3 , Giovanni Caruso  1   3 , Riccardo Gucci  1   3 , Jaroslav Havlik  2 , Rodolfo Bernardi  1   3
Affiliations

Moderate Salinity Stress Affects Expression of Main Sugar Metabolism and Transport Genes and Soluble Carbohydrate Content in Ripe Fig Fruits (Ficus carica L. cv. Dottato)

Anna Mascellani et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Fig trees (Ficus carica L.) are commonly grown in the Mediterranean area, where salinity is an increasing problem in coastal areas. Young, fruiting plants of cv. Dottato were subjected to moderate salt stress (100 mM NaCl added to irrigation water) for 48 days before fruit sampling. To clarify the effect of salinity stress, we investigated changes in the transcription of the main sugar metabolism-related genes involved in the synthesis, accumulation and transport of soluble carbohydrates in ripe fruits by quantitative real-time PCR as well as the content of soluble sugars by quantitative 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. A general increase in the transcript levels of genes involved in the transport of soluble carbohydrates was observed. Alkaline-neutral and Acid Invertases transcripts, related to the synthesis of glucose and fructose, were up-regulated in ripe fruits of NaCl-stressed plants without a change in the content of D-glucose and D-fructose. The increases in sucrose and D-sorbitol contents were likely the result of the up-regulation of the transcription of Sucrose-Synthase- and Sorbitol-Dehydrogenase-encoding genes.

Keywords: 1H NMR; Ficus carica L.; RT-qPCR; carbohydrates metabolism; qNMR; salinity stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relative expression of genes encoding carbohydrate transporters in the pulp of F. carica (cv. Dottato) fruits harvested from 100 mM NaCl-stressed plants after 48 days. The values were determined with RT-qPCR. (A) Sucrose Transporter (SUCT); (B) Sucrose Transporter 4-Like (SUCTPR); (C) Sucrose Transporter 2 Isoform 1 (SUCT2IS1); (D) Sorbitol Transporter (SORT); (E) Probable Mannitol Transporter (MANT); (F) Hexose Transporter 6-Like (HEXT6). Fold change values are means ± SD of three biological replicates. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (* p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative expression of genes encoding carbohydrate metabolism in the pulp of F. carica (cv. Dottato) fruits harvested from 100 mM NaCl-stressed plants after 48 days. The values were determined with RT-qPCR. (A) Sucrose Synthases 1 (SUSY1); (B) Sucrose Synthases 6 (SUSY6); (C) Sorbitol Dehydrogenase (SDH); (D) NADP-dependent D-sorbitol 6-phosphate Dehydrogenase (S6PDH); (E) Alkaline-neutral Invertase-Like Chloroplastic (INVCLO); (F) Alkaline-neutral Invertase-Like Mitochondrial (INVMIT); (G) Alkaline-neutral Invertase B (INVANB); (H) Probable Alkaline-neutral Invertase D (INVAND); (I) Acid β-fructofuranosidase (INVA); (J) Hexokinase-1 (HEXKIN); (K) ATP-dependent-6-phosphofructokinase 3 (PFK). Fold change values are means ± SD of three biological replicates. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (* p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Representative annotated 1H NMR spectrum of fig pulp extracted in MeOD-D2O (1:1, v/v).
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