Analysis of Key Enzyme Genes in Carotenoid Metabolism Pathway of <i>Lilium</i> and Cloning of <i>LoLcyB</i>

Abstract

In this study, five growth stages of Oriental lily ‘Justina’ leaves (10 d, 25 d, 50 d, 75 d and 100 d), and seven different parts of styles, anthers, petals, leaves, stems, bulbs and roots in 100 day growth were used as test materials to measure the content of carotenoid and chlorophyll in Lilium by organic solvent method. The semi-quantitative expression analysis of 12 key enzyme genes ( PSY , PDS , Z-ISO , ZDS , CRTISO , LCYB , LCYE , HYB , VDE , ZEP , CCS and NCED ) of Lilium carotenoid metabolic pathway was carried out according to the sequencing results of transcriptome library. The study cloned the open reading frame (ORF) sequence of Lilium LCYB gene and carried out related bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that carotenoid and chlorophyll content were significantly different in the five different stages of Lilium leaf growth and seven different parts of Lilium ripening stage. The expression levels of 12 key enzyme genes were variant in different growth stages and parts. The complete ORF of the LCYB gene was cloned with the whole length of 1,503 bp, encoding 500 amino acids, which had typical conserved region characteristics of Carotene Cycl super family. It showed the closest relationship with Musa acuminata among the known genome-wide plants. This study might provide a solid theoretical basis for further study of Lilium carotenoid metabolic pathways and further understanding of the molecular mechanism of Lilium color and leaf color synthesis.