Anthocyanin accumulation and expression analysis of biosynthesis-related genes during chili pepper fruit development

Abstract

Chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cv. Árbol and Uvilla fruits differing in anthocyanin contents were analyzed to characterize the accumulation patterns. The maximum accumulation of the aglycon delphinidin occurred 20 days postanthesis (DPA) with higher content in Uvilla than in Árbol fruits. Regarding the cDNA library, 9 186 cDNA clones were selected. The clones with high homology to genes concerning anthocyanin biosynthesis, such as encoding chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), flavonoid 3´,5´-hydroxylase (F3´5´H), dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR), anthocyanidin synthase (ANS), UDP Glc-flavonoid 3-O-gluco-syl transferase (UFGT), and also those possibly involved in anthocyanin transport into the vacuoles, an anthocyanin permease (ANP) and a glutathione S-transferase (GST) were used for gene expression analysis. In general, the expression of all investigated genes was developmentally regulated in both Árbol and Uvilla. CHS and CHI transcripts were expressed at the maximal level at 10 DPA and then consistently declined throughout fruit development. F3´5´H, DFR, UFGT and GST expression exhibited a positive correlation with anthocyanin accumulation and the highest transcript levels were detected prior to or by the time of maximum anthocyanin accumulation depending on the chili pepper type. Pericarp fruit tissues from cv. Tampiqueño 74, an anthocyanin non-accumulator, also showed CHS, CHI, F3H, ANS, and ANP expression at some developmental stages.

The relationship between red fruit colour formation and key genes of capsanthin biosynthesis pathway in Capsicum annuum

“…The pepper fruit colours are mainly due to chlorophyll, anthocyanin (Aza-González et al 2013), and carotenoid pigments. Carotenoids are responsible for a variety of colours in fully mature pepper fruits, ranging from yellow to red, and they are stored in chromoplasts (Deli et al 2001).…”

Characteristics and regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis in pepper-review

“…Regulatory as well as structural genes are necessary for the anthocyanin biosytnhesis (Aza- Gonzalez et al, 2013). Enzymes of the biosynthetic pathway have already been characterized and plenty of genes coding for these enzymes have been cloned and they showed high sequence similarity among species (Stommel et al, 2009).…”

“…Additional enzymes which are not directly linked to anthocyanin biosythetic pathway are the anthocyanin permease (ANP) and gluthaione S-transferase (Thorup et al, 2000) both act in sequestration of anthocyanin in the vacuole. Additionally 3/5-O-glycosyltransferases (3GT/5GT), rhamnosyl transferase (RT) and O-methyltransferase (OMT) or anthocyanin methyltransferase can further modify flavonoids to produce anthocyanins (Figure 4) (Holton and Cornish, 1995;Borovsky et al, 2004;Stommel et al, 2009;Aza-Gonzalez et al, 2013;AguilarBarragán and Ochoa-Alejo, 2014). …”

Development and validation of microsatellite markers fromde novotranscriptome assembly of eggplant (Solanum melongenaL.) and its putative progenitorS. incanumL. cultivars

“…FAOSTAT data reveals that eggplant production has increased up to three folds in the last two decades, with China, India, Egypt, and Turkey being the top four eggplant producing countries across the world [4]. The berries are rich in naturally occurring water-soluble flavonoids [5], vitamins and minerals [6], polyphenol derivatives [7, 8], antioxidants like chlorogenic acid (CGAs) [9], caffeic acid [10, 11], and many other phytochemical compounds of human health benefits [12, 13]. Further, the low calorie, high potassium and high dietary fiber content makes it a vegetable of choice for the obese and diabetes patients [14].…”