Cell wall and metabolite composition of berries of Vitis vinifera (L.) cv. Thompson Seedless with different firmness.

Firm berries are highly appreciated by table grape consumers. Cell wall composition is one of the main factors influencing the firmness of table grape berries. Nevertheless, the biological factors driving changes in berry firmness remain unclear. In the present work, we evaluated the firmness of berries of Vitis vinifera cv. Thompson Seedless. We selected two orchards displaying contrasting berry firmness and evaluated polar metabolites and cell wall composition. Our results suggest that berries from the soft orchard exhibited a higher accumulation of sugars at veraison whereas berries from the hard orchard accumulated the same sugars at harvest plus a higher amount of glucose monosaccharide at the cell wall. Thus, this study opens new insights about a connection between metabolic and cell wall changes with fruit firmness in a table grape variety, suggesting that it is possible to use metabolomic tools to identify metabolic biomarkers associated with table grape berry firmness.