Seedlessness in grapes is one of its desirable traits. In a previous study,
VviAGL11 was found to be the main gene responsible for seed morphogenesis in
grapevine. Jaiana Malabarba from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in
Brazil aimed to further study the function of this gene in grapevine.

The team developed two sets of seedless and seeded grapevine cultivars, one
set overexpressed VviAGL11 while the other set had a silenced VviAGL11. The
team then analyzed the berries, leaves, stems and seeds of these transgenic
plants.

Fruits from the seedless cultivar that overexpressed VviAGL11 exhibited
small seeds that were not found in the control samples. Mature grapes from
seeded cultivar with the silenced VviAGL11 showed reduced number of seeds
and increased number of seed traces.

The results of the study confirm that VviAGL11 is a key regulator of seed
morphogenesis in grapevine.



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