Abstract
The flower color of many horticultural plants fades from red to white during the development stages, affecting ornamental value. We selected Malus halliana, a popular ornamental species, and analyzed the mechanisms of flower color fading using RNA sequencing. Forty-seven genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis and two genes related to anthocyanin transport were identified; the expression of most of these genes declined dramatically with flower color fading, consistent with the change in the anthocyanin content. A number of transcription factors that might participate in anthocyanin biosynthesis were selected and analyzed. A phylogenetic tree was used to identify the key transcription factor. Using this approach, we identified MhMYB10 as directly regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis. MhMYB10 expression was strongly downregulated during flower development and was significantly positively related to the expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes and anthocyanin content in diverse varieties of Malus. To analyze the methylation level during flower development, the MhMYB10 promoter sequence was divided into 12 regions. The methylation levels of the R2 and R8 increased significantly as flower color faded and were inversely related to MhMYB10 expression and anthocyanin content. Therefore, we deduce that the increasing methylation activities of these two regions repressed MhMYB10 expression.
Highlights
Malus halliana is a traditional and important ornamental plant in the Rosaceae family because of its elegant flower shape and gorgeous flower color
The chromatic parameters of petals showed that L* values increased significantly, and a* and b* values decreased during flower development (Figure 1B)
Wang et al (2017) reported that three families (GST, ABCC, and multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE)) involved in anthocyanin transport and that two families (Lac and POD) involved in degradation were identified in transcriptome analysis of pear color fading, which is different from M. halliana, whose MhPPO was responsible for anthocyanin degradation
Summary
Malus halliana is a traditional and important ornamental plant in the Rosaceae family because of its elegant flower shape and gorgeous flower color. Flower color is a major characteristic of ornamental value, but the petal color of M. halliana clearly changes from red to pale pink during flower development (Figure 1A), which affects its ornamental value. This fading of flower color is widespread in Malus plants and other ornamental plants (Jiang et al, 2014; Yue et al, 2019). The phenotype change of flower color of M. halliana presents distinct visible phases, so M. halliana is considered as an excellent model plant for research on flower color.
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