Cloning and characterization of the CarbcL gene related to chlorophyll in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) under fruit shade stress

Abstract

Light is an important environmental factor for fruit development and ripening in pepper plant. Fruit bagging is a significant agrotechnology practiced for the illumination regulation of fruits; some previous researches have shown that fruit bagging could improve the appearance and external quality of fruits and cause them to mature early. However, it would decrease the intrinsic qualities of fruits; especially, fruit bagging could decrease the content of capsanthin in peppers. On the basis of these details, fruit bagging was used as the method of fruit shade stress in this study to explore the characteristics and molecular mechanisms of pepper fruit's color change under shade stress. By using cDNA-AFLP under fruit shading, a fragment related to fruit color was obtained. Next, the full-length coding sequence of the gene was cloned from the pepper fruits. Homologous gene alignment confirmed that the gene has high homology with the rbcL gene, named CarbcL. The function of the CarbcL gene was identified through virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS); it was found that the fruit color changed completely from green to red except for some residue of green fleck when CarbcL gene was silenced, and the green color of fruits had not fully faded in the control group and the empty vector group. The combine determination of chlorophyll content showed that CarbcL was involved in the metabolic control of chlorophyll in pepper fruits; subsequently, HPLC was used to determine the content of capsanthin in pepper fruit which the CarbcL gene was silencing, and it was also found that the content of capsanthin decreased appreciably. These results further confirmed that CarbcL gene was involved in the adjustment of chlorophyll and capsanthin.

Effects of rare-earth light conversion film on the growth and fruit quality of sweet pepper in a solar greenhouse

“…Sweet pepper fruits of uniform size and maturity were selected at the peak of the fruiting period, quick frozen in liquid nitrogen, and used for the determination of the content of GA3, ABA, IAA, and ZR using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Chinese Agriculture University, Beijing, China; Wang et al, 2015 ) according to the manufacturers’ instructions.…”

Pigment Biosynthesis and Molecular Genetics of Fruit Color in Pepper

“…CarbcL, located on chromosome 12 in pepper, is another gene affecting chlorophyll and capsaicin synthesis, except for the abovementioned genes. CarbcL is a light-sensitive gene whose expression significantly increases when light stimulates [102]. However, there are fewer studies on CaSGR and CarbcL, and their specific regulatory mechanisms during pepper fruit development are still unclear and need to be continued.…”