Abstract
The colorful leaf is an important ornamental character of Cymbidium sinense (C. sinense), especially the red leaf, which has always been attracted by breeders and consumers. However, little is documented on the formation mechanism of the red leaf of C. sinense. In this study, the changing patterns of flavonoid-related metabolites, corresponding enzyme activities and genes expression in the leaves of C. sinense ‘Red Sun’ from red to yellow and finally to green was investigated. A total of 196 flavonoid-related metabolites including 11 anthocyanins metabolites were identified using UPLC-MS/MS-based approach. In the process of leaf color change, 42 metabolites were identified as having significantly different contents and the content of 28 differential metabolites turned to zero. In anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway, content of all 15 identified metabolites showed downregulation trend in the process of leaf color change. Among the 15 metabolites, the contents of Naringenin chalcone, Pelargonidin O-acetylhexoside and Anthocyanin 3-O-beta-d-glucoside decreased to zero in the green leaf stage. The changing pattern of enzyme activity of 10 enzymes involved in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway showed different trends from red leaves that have turned yellow and finally green, while the expression of genes encoding these enzymes was all down-regulated in the process of leaf color change. The results of this study revealed the types of flavonoid-related metabolites and the comprehensive analysis of metabolites content, enzyme activities and genes expression providing a new reference for breeders to improve the leaf color of C. sinense ‘Red Sun’.
Highlights
As the largest family of monocotyledons, Orchidaceae has a long history of cultivation and contains abundant varieties
Through the overlap display analysis of the TIC map of different quality control Quality Control (QC) samples (Figure S1c), the results showed that the curve overlap of metabolite detection of total ion current was high, that is, the retention time and peak intensity were the same, indicating that the signal stability was good when the same sample was detected by mass spectrometry at different time points
A liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolomics approach was used to evaluate the difference in metabolites during the change of leaf color of C. sinense ‘Red Sun’
Summary
As the largest family of monocotyledons, Orchidaceae has a long history of cultivation and contains abundant varieties. Among these varieties, C. sinense is a unique variety produced in China, which has been loved by consumers all around the world. C. sinense contains a number of varieties based on the location and color of leaf variegation, including chimera art, claw art, crown art, crane art, middle penetration art, spot art and treasure art and so on [1]. The leaf variegation varieties of C. sinense are basically yellow-green leaves, but there are few reports about red leaves. C. sinense ‘Qihei’ is the most common variety of green leaves
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