A Malus crabapple chalcone synthase gene, McCHS, regulates red petal color and flavonoid biosynthesis.

Deqiang Tai,Jie Zhang,Ji Tian,Tingting Song,Yuncong Yao,Xianlong Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110570

Deqiang Tai, Jie Zhang + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110570

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Abstract

Chalcone synthase is a key and often rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of anthocyanin pigments that accumulate in plant organs such as flowers and fruits, but the relationship between CHS expression and the petal coloration level in different cultivars is still unclear. In this study, three typical crabapple cultivars were chosen based on different petal colors and coloration patterns. The two extreme color cultivars, ‘Royalty’ and ‘Flame’, have dark red and white petals respectively, while the intermediate cultivar ‘Radiant’ has pink petals. We detected the flavoniods accumulation and the expression levels of McCHS during petals expansion process in different cultivars. The results showed McCHS have their special expression patterns in each tested cultivars, and is responsible for the red coloration and color variation in crabapple petals, especially for color fade process in ‘Radiant’. Furthermore, tobacco plants constitutively expressing McCHS displayed a higher anthocyanins accumulation and a deeper red petal color compared with control untransformed lines. Moreover, the expression levels of several anthocyanin biosynthetic genes were higher in the transgenic McCHS overexpressing tobacco lines than in the control plants. A close relationship was observed between the expression of McCHS and the transcription factors McMYB4 and McMYB5 during petals development in different crabapple cultivars, suggesting that the expression of McCHS was regulated by these transcription factors. We conclude that the endogenous McCHS gene is a critical factor in the regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis during petal coloration in Malus crabapple.

Highlights

The plant phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway leads to the formation of numerous compounds that are involved in diverse physiological and biochemical processes [1]
Previous studies have focused on anthocyanin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana [9], Petunia hybrida [10], Zea mays [11] and Malus domestica [12,13], and anthocyanin biosynthetic genes have been characterized that are regulated by three classes of transcription factors (TFs): MYB, basic helix-loop-helix and WD40 proteins [14,15,16]
The expression profile of McCHS showed an opposite trend from that of leaves (Figure 4A). These results suggest that the expression of McCHS have different patterns in different tissues/organs among these three cultivars, so we deduced that the expression of McCHS may be involved in other flavonoids compounds biosynthesis

Summary

Introduction

The plant phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway leads to the formation of numerous compounds that are involved in diverse physiological and biochemical processes [1]. Some well-studied examples of these compounds include anthocyanins, flavonols and proanthocyanidins of the flavonoid family, which play a central role in the pigmentation of plant organs, seed germination, UV-B protection and defense against pathogens and biotic stresses [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. There has been much interest in CHS and its involvement in many aspects of plant physiology and biochemistry

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