Abstract
BackgroundFlavonoids have essential roles in flower pigmentation, fibre development and disease resistance in cotton. Previous studies show that accumulation of naringenin in developing cotton fibres significantly affects fibre growth. This study focused on determining the effects of the flavonoids naringenin, dihydrokaempferol, dihydroquerectin and eriodictyol on fibre development in an in vitro system.Results20 μM eriodictyol treatment produced a maximum fibre growth, in terms of fibre length and total fibre units. To gain insight into the associated transcriptional regulatory networks, RNA-seq analysis was performed on eriodictyol-treated elongated fibres, and computational analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that carbohydrate metabolism and phytohormone signaling pathways were differentially modulated. Eriodictyol treatment also promoted the biosynthesis of quercetin and dihydroquerectin in ovules and elongating fibres through enhanced expression of genes encoding chalcone isomerase, chalcone synthase and flavanone 3-hydroxylase. In addition, auxin biosynthesis and signaling pathway genes were differentially expressed in eriodictyol-driven in vitro fibre elongation. In absence of auxin, eriodictyol predominantly enhanced fibre growth when the localized auxin gradient was disrupted by the auxin transport inhibitor, triiodobenzoic acid.ConclusionEriodictyol was found to significantly enhance fibre development through accumulating and maintaining the temporal auxin gradient in developing unicellular cotton fibres.
Highlights
Flavonoids have essential roles in flower pigmentation, fibre development and disease resistance in cotton
Silencing FLAVANONE 3-HYDROXYLASE (F3H) leads to NAR accumulation, which is negatively associated with fibre development, while its overexpression does significantly affect fibre phenotype [17]
It is of significant interest to understand the expression pattern of flavonoid pathway genes during in vitro cotton fibre development, and how this is linked to growth effects
Summary
Flavonoids have essential roles in flower pigmentation, fibre development and disease resistance in cotton. Flavonoids are a diverse group of secondary metabolites that are commonly found in nature and play various roles that assist plants in multiple biological activities [1, 2]. They have been proven beneficial to various crop plants by providing resistance against pathogen infections [3]. Flavonoid biosynthesis leads to the production of six different classes of compounds amongst which the anthocyanins, responsible for pigmentation in flowers, are widespread in plants [5]. A study reported that general flavonoid biosynthesis pathway genes, such as CHALCONE SYNTHASE (CHS), FLAVANONE 3′-HYDROXYLASE (F3’H) and FLAVANONE 3′5’HYDROXYLASE (F3’5’H), were differentially expressed in
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