Abstract: It was found in previous paper that the anthocyanin accumulation in peach fruit skin was promoted by genistein（GNT）but inhibited by cGMP，which is quite different from the prevailing hypotheses in this field. In this study，we once again observed that GNT promoted anthocyanin accumulation in grape berry skin in vitro. The anthocyanin accumulation induced by GNT was dependent on light exposure. However，a dark period about 10–12 h was necessary during GNT induction. This may suggest that light is unnecessary for the direct physiological responses for berries to GNT treatment，but necessary for anthocyanin accumulation. Furthermore，it was found that if the berries were treated with cGMP at once following GNT pretreatment，the GNT-induced anthocyanin accumulation was significantly inhibited. However，if cGMP treatment was conducted 12 h after GNT pretreatment，the inhibition of cGMP was no longer observed，suggesting that the GNT-induced physiological responses might be completed in 12 h. Detection by semi-quantitative RT-PCR showed the expression of the genes including PAL，CHS and UFGT，which are related with anthocyanin biosynthesis，were up-regulated by light exposure and GNT treatment in grape skin，while LDOX seemed no response to these two factors. Treatment with cGMP inhibited RNA accumulation of PAL and CHS induced by GNT，suggesting that GNT and cGMP be of antagonism in regulation of anthocyanin accumulation in grape skins.

Key words: grape, anthocyanin, genistein, cGMP, gene, expression