Abstract
Anthocyanins are considered a stress indicator due to their involvement in the response to many stresses including high light (HL) and low temperature (LT). With the development of transcriptomics, it is necessary to find the different and common points in the mechanisms of LT-induced and HL-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis. In the present study, we determined the transcriptomes of Begonia semperflorens leaves under three different conditions (normal growing conditions (CK), HL, and LT). To validate the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), we selected four core genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis to perform real-time reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and then determined anthocyanin content. In total, 94,880 unigenes with a mean length of 635 bp were assembled. The N50 values of the transcripts and unigenes were 2286 bp and 1064 bp, respectively. The functional annotations of the unigenes were analysed against five protein databases. DEGs related to anthocyanin biosynthesis, transportation, and regulation were identified. We also analysed the enrichment pathway, and the differences in mechanisms of anthocyanin induced under low-temperature and high-light conditions are discussed in this paper. This study is the first to examine broad-scale gene expression in Begonia semperflorens. By identifying DEGs regulated by both LT and HL conditions, we found that anthocyanin accumulation was employed as a common strategy by Begonia seedlings in resisting LT and HL stress. By identifying DEGs regulated differently by LT and HL conditions, we found that Begonia seedlings also had some different strategies for resisting LT and HL stresses: anthocyanins were biosynthesized under HL condition, while lignin, proanthocyanidins, and anthocyanins were biosynthesized under LT condition.
Highlights
Plants have developed many strategies to resist stresses and compensate for their immobility.Products of secondary metabolism, such as flavonoids, play many important roles in resisting stress.Flavonoids constitute a diverse family, which includes compounds such as flavones, isoflavones, flavonols, catechins, and anthocyanins
(Figure 7), which is consistent with the transcript levels of these four core genes. These results indicate that these four core genes are related to anthocyanin biosynthesis
We employed RNA-Seq to study the transcriptome of anthocyanin biosynthesis and transport in B. semperflorens
Summary
Plants have developed many strategies to resist stresses and compensate for their immobility.Products of secondary metabolism, such as flavonoids, play many important roles in resisting stress.Flavonoids constitute a diverse family, which includes compounds such as flavones, isoflavones, flavonols, catechins, and anthocyanins. Plants have developed many strategies to resist stresses and compensate for their immobility. Products of secondary metabolism, such as flavonoids, play many important roles in resisting stress. Flavonoids constitute a diverse family, which includes compounds such as flavones, isoflavones, flavonols, catechins, and anthocyanins. Anthocyanins, a subgroup of flavonoids, are of interest due to their significant roles as pigments and antioxidants. Anthocyanins are known to attract seed dispersers and pollinators and to protect plants against high-light irradiation [1]. Anthocyanins can act as scavengers of free radicals that are produced within cells [2,3,4]
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