Grapevine species (Vitis sp.) are prone to several diseases, fungi being the major pathogens compromising its cultivation and economic profit around the world. Knowledge of the complexity of mechanisms responsible for resistance to fungus infection of cultivars, such as Regent, is necessary for strategies to be defined which will improve resistance in highly susceptible crop species. Transcript and metabolic profiles of the Vitis vinifera cultivars Regent and Trincadeira (resistant and susceptible to fungi, respectively) were analysed by cDNA microarray, quantitative real-time PCR, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The integration of datasets obtained through transcriptome and metabolome analysis revealed differences in transcripts and metabolites between both cultivars. These differences are probably associated with the innate resistance of Regent towards the mildews. Several transcripts related to stress and defence, namely a subtilisin-like protease, phenylalanine ammonia lyase, S-adenosylmethionine synthase, WD-repeat protein like, and J2P, were up-regulated in Regent suggesting an intrinsic resistance capability of this cultivar. A metabolic profile revealed an accumulation of compounds such as inositol and caffeic acid, which are known to confer resistance to fungi. The differences in transcripts and metabolites detected are discussed in terms of the metabolic pathways and their possible role in plant defence against pathogen attack, as well as their potential interest to discriminate among resistant and susceptible grapevine cultivars.

Subtilisin-like proteases (subtilases) are serine proteases that fulfil highly specific functions in plant development and signaling cascades. Over the last decades, it has been shown that several subtilases are specifically induced following pathogen infection and very recently an Arabidopsis subtilase (SBT3.3) was hypothesised to function as a receptor located in the plasma membrane activating downstream immune signaling processes. Despite their prevalence and potential relevance in the regulation of plant defense mechanisms and crop improvement, our current understanding of subtilase function is still very limited. In this perspective article, we overview the current status and highlight the involvement of subtilases in pathogen recognition and immune priming.

The pivotal role of cultivated grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) in many countries economy is compromised by its high susceptibility to Plasmopara viticola, the causal agent of downy mildew disease. Recent research has identified a set of genes related to resistance which may be used to track downy mildew infection. Quantification of the expression of these resistance genes requires normalizing qPCR data using reference genes with stable expression in the system studied. In this study, a set of eleven genes (VATP16, 60 S, UQCC, SMD3, EF1α, UBQ, SAND, GAPDH, ACT, PsaB, PTB2) was evaluated to identify reference genes during the first hours of interaction (6, 12, 18 and 24 hpi) between two V. vinifera genotypes and P. viticola. Two analyses were used for the selection of reference genes: direct comparison of susceptible, Trincadeira, and resistant, Regent, V. vinifera cultivars at 0 h, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours post inoculation with P. viticola (genotype effect); and comparison of each genotype with mock inoculated samples during inoculation time-course (biotic stress effect). Three statistical methods were used, GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, allowing to identify UBQ, EF1α and GAPDH as the most stable genes for the genotype effect. For the biotic stress effect, EF1α, SAND and SMD3 were the most constant for the susceptible cultivar Trincadeira and EF1α, GAPDH, UBQ for the resistant cultivar Regent. In addition, the expression of three defense-related transcripts, encoding for subtilisin-like protein, CYP and PR10, was analysed, for both datasets, during inoculation time-course. Taken together, our results provide guidelines for reference gene(s) selection towards a more accurate and widespread use of qPCR to study the first hours of interaction between different grapevine cultivars and P. viticola.