Abstract
BackgroundAnthocyanins determinate the flower color of many plants. Tobacco is a model plant for studying the molecular regulation of flower coloration. We investigated the mechanism underlying flower coloration in tobacco by profiling flavonoid metabolites,expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic structural genes and their regulator genes in the pink-flowered tobacco cultivar Yunyan 87 and white-flowered Yunyan 87 mutant.ResultSignificant down-accumulation of anthocyanins, including cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, cyanin, cyanidin 3-O-rutinoside, pelargonidin 3-O-beta-D-glucoside, cyanidin O-syringic acid, pelargonin, and pelargonidin 3-O-malonylhexoside (log2 fold change < − 10), endowed the flower color mutation in Yunyan 87 mutant. Transcriptome analysis showed that the coordinately down-regulated anthocyanin biosynthetic genes including chalcone isomerase, naringenin 3-dioxygenase, dihydroflavonol 4-reductase and UDP-glucose:flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase played critical roles in suppressing the formation of the aforesaid anthocyanins. Several genes encoding MYB and bHLH transcription factors were also found down-regulated, and probably the reason for the suppression of structural genes.ConclusionThis is the first study of tobacco flower coloration combining metabolome and transcriptome analyses, and the results shed a light on the systematic regulation mechanisms of flower coloration in tobacco. The obtained information will aid in developing strategies to modify flower color through genetic transformation.
Highlights
Anthocyanins determinate the flower color of many plants
This is the first study of tobacco flower coloration combining metabolome and transcriptome analyses, and the results shed a light on the systematic regulation mechanisms of flower coloration in tobacco
Since anthocyanin content is determinant for flower color change in tobacco [6,7,8,9,10], we profiled the metabolome of the petal samples of Yunyan 87 and Yunyan 87 mutant using the flavonoid-targeted metabolomics approach [42]
Summary
Tobacco is a model plant for studying the molecular regulation of flower coloration. We investigated the mechanism underlying flower coloration in tobacco by profiling flavonoid metabolites,expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic structural genes and their regulator genes in the pink-flowered tobacco cultivar Yunyan 87 and white-flowered Yunyan 87 mutant. The previous studies of flower coloration in tobacco are limited and mainly focused on the control of one of the core anthocyanin biosynthetic genes or the regulatory factors such as MYB transcription factors [7,8,9,10, 24, 25, 36]. We profiled the changes in metabolome and transcriptome between pink and white flower petals of tobacco in order to pinpoint key genes controlling anthocyanin composition in the flowers of Yunyan 87 and Yunyan 87 mutant
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