Identification and expression analysis of autophagy-related gene family associated with embryonic development in seeded and seedless grapes (<i>Vitis vinifera</i>)

Autophagy is an important protein degradation pathway in eukaryotes and is involved in multiple processes. To date, many autophagy-related genes had been studied in various plants, but a few studies have been reported on the role of autophagy in seed development. For centuries, seedlessness has been one of the most valuable characteristics of grapes. In this study, we identified a total of 33 ATG genes in the grape. Tissue-specific expression analysis showed that VvATGs expressed widely in V. vinifera cv. ‘Pinot Noir’, indicating autophagy has an extensive role in plant development. Furthermore, we analysed the expression profiles of VvATGs during seed development in stenospermocarpic seedless ‘Thompson Seedless’ and seeded grapes ‘Pinot Noir’, the results showed that most of VvATGs exhibited higher expression levels in stenospermocarpic seedless grapes than that of seeded ones, which implies the autophagic activity in seedless grapes is relatively brisk and VvATGs may involve in the seed abortion. And the yeast two-hybrid assay showed that VvATG7 protein interacted with VvATG10 and VvATG12 protein, respectively, indicating that they may form autophagy complex through protein interactionIn summary, the genome-wide identification, expression analysis, and protein interaction of VvATGs provide new insights regarding potential roles during plant embryonic development.