Metabolomic Analysis on the Petal of 'Chen Xi' Rose with Light-Induced Color Changes.

Mengyue Su,Rebecca Njeri Damaris,Zhengrong Hu,Pingfang Yang,Jiao Deng

doi:10.3390/plants10102065

Mengyue Su, Rebecca Njeri Damaris + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10102065

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Abstract

Flower color is one of the most prominent traits of rose flowers and determines their ornamental value. The color of the “Chen Xi” rose can change from yellow to red during flower blooming. In the present study, the flavonoid metabolites were investigated by the UPLC-ESI-MS/MS from the petals of four successive flower development stages under natural conditions. In total, 176 flavonoid components, including 49 flavones, 59 flavonols, 12 flavanones, 3 isoflavones, 12 anthocyanins, and 41 proanthocyanidins were identified, with some of them being detected for the first time in this study. Additionally, there were 56 compounds that showed differences among comparison groups, mainly being enriched in pathways of isoflavone, flavonoid, flavone, flavonol, phenylpropanoids, and anthocyanin. Among them, it is anthocyanins that allow the rose flower to turn red when exposed to sunlight. To verify this result, compounds from rose petal with shading treatment (S2D) was also detected but could be clearly separated from the four samples under light by clustering and principal component analyses (PCA). Consistent with low anthocyanins accumulation, the flower with shading could not turn red. Moreover, it provides a foundation for further research on the light-induced color modification of flower.

Highlights

The rose (Rosa sp.), belonging to the Rosaceae family, is one of the most popular and widely planted ornamental plants worldwide
The results indicated that the expression levels of the differentially expressed genes enriched in the anthocyanin pathway, e.g., chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), dihydroflavonol reductase (DFR), and leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase (LDOX) in pink flowers were significantly higher than in white flowers, which are consistent with the accumulation of anthocyanin in flowers of the two rose cultivars
At the S1 stage corresponding to the newly opened flower (Figure 1(A5)), flowers under both treatments were mainly yellow; at the S2 stage, the flower is mainly yellow with some light red (Figure 1(A7),B) under natural light, while it stayed as yellow under darkness (Figure 1); at the S3 stage, the color was deep red with fading yellow under light (Figure 1(A9),B), and flowers in the Plants 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW

Summary

Introduction

The rose (Rosa sp.), belonging to the Rosaceae family, is one of the most popular and widely planted ornamental plants worldwide. Roses are utilized as cut flowers, potted plants, and garden ornamental plants [2,3]. Due to their rich bioactive components, rose flowers are extensively used in food, drugs, cosmetics, and pharmaceutics [4,5,6,7]. Rose flowers are charming and colorful, including red, pink, orange, yellow, white, variegated, as well as alternating colors during flowering. The blue rose flower has been cultivated through the molecular breeding method [8]. The color of the rose flower determines its ornamental and commercial value and creating novel flower colors is one of the main objectives for breeders

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