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BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES AND MACROMOLECULAR STRUCTURES

Reconfiguration of the Achene and Receptacle Metabolic Networks during Strawberry Fruit Development^1,[C],[W]

Abteilung Willmitzer, Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany (A.F., V.J.N., A.R.F.); Department of Biosciences, University of Kuopio, 70210 Kuopio, Finland (K.H.); CRA Cereal Research Center, 71100 Foggia, Italy (R.B.); Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel (N.D.); and Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel (I.R., A.A.)

The anatomy of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) fruit, in which the achene is found on the outer part of the fruit, makes it an excellent species for studying the regulation of fruit development. It can provide a model for the cross talk between primary and secondary metabolism, whose role is of pivotal importance in the process. By combining gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with the aim of addressing the metabolic regulation underlying fruit seed development, we simultaneously analyzed the composition of primary and secondary metabolites, separately, in achene and receptacle during fruit ripening of strawberry cultivar Herut. The results from these analyses suggest that changes in primary and secondary metabolism reflect organ and developmental specificities. For instance, the receptacle was characterized by increases in sugars and their direct derivatives, while the achene was characterized by a major decrease in the levels of carbon- and nitrogen-rich compounds, with the exception of storage-related metabolites (e.g. raffinose). Furthermore, the receptacle, and to a lesser extent the achene, exhibited dynamic fluctuations in the levels and nature of secondary metabolites across the ripening process. In the receptacle, proanthocyanidins and flavonol derivatives characterized mainly early developmental stages, while anthocyanins were abundant in the mature red stage; in the achene, ellagitannin and flavonoids were abundant during early and late development, respectively. Correlation-based network analysis suggested that metabolism is substantially coordinated during early development in either organ. Nonetheless, a higher degree of connectivity within and between metabolic pathways was measured in the achenes. The data are discussed within the context of current models both of the interaction of primary and secondary metabolism and of the metabolic interaction between the different plant organs.

² These authors contributed equally to the article.

³ Present address: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Jacob Blaustein Insts. for Desert Research, Dept. of Dryland Biotechnology, 84990 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Aaron Fait (fait{at}bgu.ac.il).

^[C] Some figures in this article are displayed in color online but in black and white in the print edition.

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.120691

^* Corresponding author; e-mail fait{at}bgu.ac.il.

Received April 10, 2008; accepted August 10, 2008; published August 20, 2008.