Anatomy of Vitis Berries During Their Coloring

During 1998-1999, the course of the berry coloring and the development of the pigment cells from veraison to ripeness were studied by freeze sectioning 43 accessions of 12 Vitis species (including 10 Chinese wild species). External observation showed that the berries of most species began coloring on the fruit top surface or on the sun-lit surface, and the berry surface color was evenly distributed when the berry was ripe.Internal observation revealed that the pigment cells in a few layers between cuticle and sub-cuticle colored first, the cuticle colored from inner layers to outer layers while the sub-cuticle from outer to inner, and the cuticle cells began coloring a little earlier than the sub-cuticle ones in most species. The pigment cells developed unevenly during the berry ripening. In the beginning of berry coloring, the cell pigment density among the layers or among the cells in the same layer was different. Both the numbers of the pigmented cells and the cell pigment density increased during the berry coloring, while the former lasted a short time; however, the latter kept increasing from veraison to ripeness, and they reached the deepest color when the berry was ripe.