Abstract
Water lily, the member of the Nymphaeaceae family, is the symbol of Buddhism and Brahmanism in India. Despite its limited researches on flower color variations and formation mechanism, water lily has background of blue flowers and displays an exceptionally wide diversity of flower colors from purple, red, blue to yellow, in nature. In this study, 34 flavonoids were identified among 35 tropical cultivars by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array detection (DAD) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Among them, four anthocyanins: delphinidin 3-O-rhamnosyl-5-O-galactoside (Dp3Rh5Ga), delphinidin 3-O-(2″-O-galloyl-6″-O-oxalyl-rhamnoside) (Dp3galloyl-oxalylRh), delphinidin 3-O-(6″-O-acetyl-β-glucopyranoside) (Dp3acetylG) and cyanidin 3- O-(2″-O-galloyl-galactopyranoside)-5-O-rhamnoside (Cy3galloylGa5Rh), one chalcone: chalcononaringenin 2′-O-galactoside (Chal2′Ga) and twelve flavonols: myricetin 7-O-rhamnosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (My7RhRh), quercetin 7-O-galactosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (Qu7GaRh), quercetin 7-O-galactoside (Qu7Ga), kaempferol 7-O-galactosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (Km7GaRh), myricetin 3-O-galactoside (My3Ga), kaempferol 7-O-galloylgalactosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (Km7galloylGaRh), myricetin 3-O-galloylrhamnoside (My3galloylRh), kaempferol 3-O-galactoside (Km3Ga), isorhamnetin 7-O-galactoside (Is7Ga), isorhamnetin 7-O-xyloside (Is7Xy), kaempferol 3-O-(3″-acetylrhamnoside) (Km3-3″acetylRh) and quercetin 3-O-acetylgalactoside (Qu3acetylGa) were identified in the petals of tropic water lily for the first time. Meanwhile a multivariate analysis was used to explore the relationship between pigments and flower color. By comparing, the cultivars which were detected delphinidin 3-galactoside (Dp3Ga) presented amaranth, and detected delphinidin 3′-galactoside (Dp3′Ga) presented blue. However, the derivatives of delphinidin and cyanidin were more complicated in red group. No anthocyanins were detected within white and yellow group. At the same time a possible flavonoid biosynthesis pathway of tropical water lily was presumed putatively. These studies will help to elucidate the evolution mechanism on the formation of flower colors and provide theoretical basis for outcross breeding and developing health care products from this plant.
Highlights
Water lily, a precious perennial aquatic flower plant, is divided into two ecological groups, namely Tropical and Hardy water lily [1]
Tropical water lily is characteristic of some unique biological features such as the special flower colors like blue, violet and bluish purple and some cultivars blooming at night
Compared the graphs of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with the results of multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis, we could see that Dp39galloyl-acetylGa (a7) and Dp3galloyl-acetylGa (a9) were the main anthocyanins in those 35 cultivars, but they did not take part in the MLR analysis and in reverse Dp39galloylGa (a2) and Dp3galloylGa (a3) replaced them
Summary
Water lily (an aquatic herb of genus Nymphaea, family Nymphaeaceae), a precious perennial aquatic flower plant, is divided into two ecological groups, namely Tropical and Hardy water lily [1]. Water lily is an ornamental plant and an important water purification one. Flowers and roots of water lily can both be made into tea and liquor, and the whole plant has been useful in the therapies of nephritis and is reputedly a detoxicant and aphrodisiac along with astringent, diuretic properties [5]. As shown, tropical water lily owns flowers with the special colors of blue, violet and bluish purple which hardy water lily lacks of, for this reason the former is more favorable by people. Little is known about the formation and genetic mechanism of the flower colors on tropical water lily, the study on its pigments of flower petals will illuminate the formation of flower colors
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