Abstract
Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) is an economically important ornamental crop across the globe. As floral color is the major factor determining customer selection, manipulation of floral color has been a major objective for breeders. Anthocyanins are one of the main pigments contributing to a broad variety of colors in the ray florets of chrysanthemum. Manipulating petal pigments has resulted in the development of a vast range of floral colors. Although the candidate genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis have been well studied, the genetic and transcriptional control of floral color remains unclear. Despite advances in multi-omics technology, these methods remain in their infancy in chrysanthemum, owing to its large complex genome and hexaploidy. Hence, there is a need to further elucidate and better understand the genetic and molecular regulatory mechanisms in chrysanthemum, which can provide a basis for future advances in breeding for novel and diverse floral colors in this commercially beneficial crop. Therefore, this review describes the significance of anthocyanins in chrysanthemum flowers, and the mechanism of anthocyanin biosynthesis under genetic and environmental factors, providing insight into the development of novel colored ray florets. Genetic and molecular regulatory mechanisms that control anthocyanin biosynthesis and the various breeding efforts to modify floral color in chrysanthemum are detailed.
Highlights
Flowers are beautiful and vital organs, which provide eye-catching attributes to plants with their varied colors and morphology
Floral color is a major breeding target, because it determines the commercial value of ornamental plants
Genes involved in the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway and their expression profiles have been elucidated in chrysanthemum
Summary
Flowers are beautiful and vital organs, which provide eye-catching attributes to plants with their varied colors and morphology. Carotenoids can impart yellow, orange, and bright red colors and their specific compositions vary widely in the petals of ornamental flowers. Based on the specific structure and the functional group present, flavonoids can be divided into several groups: chalcones, flavanones, flavones, flavanonols, flavonols, flavanols, and anthocyanins This widespread and important group of pigments contributes to a wide spectrum of petal colors, from pale yellow to orange, red, blue, purple, and magenta. Chrysanthemum cultivars are considered a good source of anthocyanin for commercial-level extraction, since they contain numerous flowers in a single plant and a wide range of floral colors [14] a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying anthocyanin regulation that influences petal color formation would facilitate more efficient breeding efforts to generate novel colors and patterns in chrysanthemum flowers.
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