Le réchauffement climatique planétaire annoncé ne sera pas sans conséquence sur le métabolisme de la baie et en particulier sur la teneur en composés phénoliques. Les objectifs de cette thèse visent à mieux comprendre les processus de régulation associant le microclimat des baies et la synthèse des composés phénoliques. Par des approches moléculaires et biochimiques, ce travail a permis de mieux décrire les réponses spécifiques des baies de raisin (cultivar Cabernet-Sauvignon) aux facteurs rayonnement et température.L'analyse du transcriptome des baies exposées soit à un stress thermique soit à un stress lumineux a mis en lumière deux processus, une réponse rapide ayant lieu dès les premières heures de traitement et une réponse apparaissant au bout de plusieurs jours d’exposition aux stress. Cette étude a également permis de valider le système expérimental de découplage des effets du rayonnement et de la température.L'analyse des profils d’expression d’une vingtaine de gènes intervenant dans la voie de biosynthèse des flavonoïdes révèle des différences dans la réponse transcriptionnelle des gènes en fonction du stress et du stade développement auquel il a été appliqué. Néanmoins cette réponse n'est pas ou peu corrélée avec les variations des teneurs en anthocyanes et flavonols observées. Les teneurs en anthocyanes sont fortement réduites par l’action de la chaleur alors que les teneurs de certains flavonols augmentent sous l’influence du rayonnement. Au niveau des acides présents dans la pulpe des baies, l’acide malique voit sa teneur réduite sous l’effet de la chaleur ainsi que d’une forte intensité lumineuse. Les analyses montrent un impact important du stress thermique sur la teneur de la phénylalanine, de la tyrosine et de la lysine dans la pellicule.Parallèlement, l'initiation d’une étude du métabolome des pellicules de baies de raisin a été entreprise par UPLC-ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap™ et a permis d'acquérir des bases solides pour optimiser le protocole utilisé en vue d'analyses futures. Cette étude permet de dresser une liste préliminaire de métabolites d’intérêts.Enfin, le gène VvGOLS1 (Galactinol synthase 1) voit son expression stimulée dans les baies exposées au stress thermique, ce qui se traduit par une accumulation de galactinol, précurseur de la voie des RFOs. Un rôle de molécule «signal» est envisagé pour le galactinol. Un régulateur de la transcription de VvGOLS1 a également été identifié par des expériences d'expression transitoire en protoplastes. Il s'agit du facteur de transcription VvHsfA2, dont l'expression est également stimulée par le stress thermique. Dans ce contexte, la caractérisation des gènes de la famille des Hsfs (Heat Stress Factors) a été initée. / Global warming will affect berry metabolism, and especially phenylpropanoïd contents. This PhD work aimed to acquire a better understanding on the cellular processus linking the microclimate and the phenolic synthesis. By molecular and biochemical approaches, we extended this study to detail specific responses taking place in berries under heat and light stress.Transcriptomic analysis of heat-stressed and light-stressed berries showed the existence of two processes that occur in exposed berries. The first one triggers a rapid and transient expression of genes within the first hours of treatment. The second one mobilizes a set of genes showing increase in their expression after several days of stress exposure. Furthermore, this study validated the experimental set used to discriminate the effects of light and temperature, respectively.Expression analysis of 20 genes involved in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway revealed strong differences among the transcriptional responses, depending on the nature of stress and the developmental stage of the berry. However, expression patterns of genes involved in the biosynthesis of flavonoid could not fully explain the changes in anthocyanin and flavonol contents. This suggests that additional regulation processes such as post-traductional modifications of enzymes or metabolite degradation might take place in berries under abiotic stress. Anthocyanin content decreases under heat stress whereas flavonol content increases under high light. Malic acid increases in berry exposed to heat stress and high light. Moreover, heat-stressed berries showed an accumulation of phenylalanine, tyrosine and lysine in skin but not in pulp.In parallel, a metabolomic analysis was initiated on stress exposed berry skins by using UPLC-ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap™ technology. The first experiments revealed contrasted metabolite contents in berries according to the stress applied, and highlighted several metabolites of interest. The preliminary assays will help optimize this powerful tool for futures analysis.Finally, expression of VvGOLS1 (Galactinol synthase 1) was strongly induced in grape berries exposed to heat stress, in good agreement with the observed galactinol accumulation. Role of galactinol as a signaling molecule is discussed. Transient expression experiments revealed that VvGOLS1 expression is regulated at the transcriptional level through VvHsfA2 action. VvHsfA2 expression is also stimulated under heat stress. In this context, characterization of the grapevine heat stress factors was initiated.

The barley scald pathogen (Rhynchosporium secalis) causes extensive economic losses, not only through lost product and quality, but also due to costs associated with chemical control. Economic and environmental impacts and the emerging resistance to fungicides and dominant resistance genes are reasons to understand molecular defence responses in order to develop new strategies to increase resistance of barley to this pathogen. In most pathosystems, defence gene expression in susceptible or resistant genotypes commonly differs quantitatively. Thus, differentially expressed genes between genotypes contrasting for response to infection by pathogens are considered candidate genes that have a role in resistance. This thesis presents functional analysis of a subset of genes isolated from a Suppression Subtractive Hybridisation library. The library was previously established and enriched for differentially expressed genes in epidermis of resistant and susceptible near-isogenic barley cultivars inoculated with R. secalis. Functional characterisation involved both investigating their putitative biochemical function as well as the genes‟ role(s) in biotic and abiotic stress responses. Three cDNA clones from the library were selected based on the putative function of the encoded proteins and the full length of the clones and their homologues were isolated from cDNA and genomic DNA. One of the clones represented a member of the pathogenesis-related protein family 17 (PR-17). Southern hybridisation showed that a small multigene family encodes the barley PR-17 proteins. Three members were cloned with two of them being novel. The second clone was homologous to galactinol synthases (GolS) and Southern blot analysis indicated existence of two GolS genes in the barley genome and subsequently two HvGolS members were isolated. The last clone (a single gene) showed similarity to very long chain fatty acid elongases, which indicates its involvement in synthesis of cuticular waxes. A characterised Arabidopsis mutant named fiddlehead (Atfdh) was highly similar to this gene and it was named HvFdh. Detailed expression analysis using Q-PCR, Northern blot analysis and publically available microarray data revealed that the isolated genes are regulated in response to a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses as well as different tissues during barley development. Under some treatments expression patterns were consistent with their putative roles and in agreement with results of other studies. Nevertheless, in other treatments expression profiles were not in agreement with previous findings in other plants indicating potentially different stress adaptation mechanisms between species. Further insight into the function of the encoded proteins was gained by their subcellular localisation using transient expression as GFP fusion proteins followed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The results were in agreement with in silico predictions and their putative cellular function. In addition, a comprehensive list of homologous genes from other species was compiled for each gene by using public EST databases. Analyses of phylogenetic relationship and multiple sequence alignment of the homologues provided further clues to their function and conserved regions of the proteins. HvPR-17 anti-fungal properties were investigated by heterologous protein expression in E. coli and subsequent in vitro bioassays using purified protein under different conditions against a number of phytopathogenic fungi. However, no anti-fungal activity was observed. A construct with the AtFdh promoter driving the coding region of barley Fiddlehead was used for complementation of the Arabidopsis fiddlehead mutant to investigate functional orthology between these genes from dicots and monocots. The Arabidopsis fiddlehead mutant phenotype that shows contact-mediated organ fusion, germination of spore on epidermis and reduced number of trichomes was completely reverted by HvFdh. Finally, more than fifty transgenic barley lines were regenerated over-expressing or suppressing one of the three genes. The analyses of the transgenic progeny exhibited some interesting developmental phenotypes and resistance to scald and drought tolerance. These lines are awaiting further experiments to investigate the effect of altered expression in conferring resistance to other pathogens and abiotic stress tolerance as well as biochemical analysis. Collectively, in this work six barley genes were cloned and characterised by a variety of in silico techniques, temporal and transient expression analyses, subcellular localisation, in vitro bioassays and mutant complementation in Arabidopsis and loss- and gain-of-function transgenic barley plants. This work has provided insight into the function of these gene families in barley. Furthermore, the data suggest that they are regulated by the defence response to pathogenic fungi as well as drought, salinity and frost in barley. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1375755 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, 2009