Although grape berries have been classified as non climacteric fruits, ongoing studies on grape ethylene signalling lead to challenge the role of ethylene in their ripening. One of the significant molecular changes in berries is the up regulation of ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase, EC. 1.1.1.1) enzyme activity at the inception of fruit ripening and of VvADH2 transcript levels. This paper shows that the ethylene signal transduction pathway could be involved in the control of VvADH2 expression in grapevine berries and in cell suspensions. The induction of VvADH2 transcription, either in berries at the inception of ripening or in cell suspensions, was found to be partly inhibited by 1 methylcyclopropene (1 MCP), an inhibitor of ethylene receptors. Treatment of cell suspensions with 2 chloroethylphosphonic acid (2-CEPA), an ethylene releasing compound, also resulted in a significant increase of ADH activity and VvADH2 transcription under anaerobiosis, showing that concomitant ethylene and anaerobic treatments in cell suspensions could result in changes of VvADH2 expression. All these results, associated with the presence in the VvADH2 promoter of regulatory elements for ethylene and anaerobic response, suggest that ethylene transduction pathway and anaerobic stress could be in part involved in the regulation of VvADH2 expression in ripening berries and cell suspensions. These data open new aspects of the expression control of a ripening-related gene in a non climacteric fruit
