Identification of Candidate Anthocyanin-Related Genes by Transcriptomic Analysis of ‘Furongli’ Plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) during Fruit Ripening Using RNA-Seq

Abstract

Anthocyanins are important pigments and are responsible for red coloration in plums. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying anthocyanin accumulation in plum fruits. In this study, the RNA-seq technique was used to analyze the transcriptomic changes during fruit ripening in the red-fleshed plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) cultivar ‘Furongli’. Over 161 million high-quality reads were assembled into 52,093 unigenes and 49.4% of these were annotated using public databases. Of these, 25,681 unigenes had significant hits to the sequences in the NCBI Nr database, 17,203 unigenes showed significant similarity to known proteins in the Swiss-Prot database and 5816 and 8585 unigenes had significant similarity to existing sequences in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and the Cluster of Orthologous Groups databases, respectively. A total of 3548 unigenes were differentially expressed during fruit ripening and 119 of these were annotated as involved in “biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites.” Biological pathway analysis and gene ontology term enrichment analysis revealed that 13 differentially expressed genes are involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis. Furthermore, transcription factors such as MYB and bHLH, which may control anthocyanin biosynthesis, were identified through coexpression analysis of transcription factors, and structural genes. Real-time qPCR analysis of candidate genes showed good correlation with the transcriptome data. These results contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying anthocyanin biosynthesis in plum flesh. The transcriptomic data generated in this study provide a basis for further studies of fruit ripening in plum.

Changes in secondary metabolites, organic acids and soluble sugars during the development of plum fruit cv. ‘Furongli’ (Prunus salicina Lindl)

“…The ‘Furongli’ plum ( Prunus salicina Lindl. ), with red peel and red pulp, has been cultivated in Fujian Province, China, for more than 700 years . Owing to its beneficial antioxidant potential and bioactive compounds, plum fruit has become a favorite for customers.…”

“…), with red peel and red pulp, has been cultivated in Fujian Province, China, for more than 700 years. 17 Owing to its beneficial antioxidant potential and bioactive compounds, plum fruit has become a favorite for customers. Although the content of sugars, organic acids and some secondary compounds in plum fruit have been investigated in some detail, 17,18 the dynamics of anthocyanins, total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, soluble sugars, organic acids and related enzymes during plum fruit development are not fully understood in 'Furongli' cultivar.…”

Transcriptomic analysis of Lycium ruthenicum Murr. during fruit ripening provides insight into structural and regulatory genes in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway

“…The anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway is catalyzed stepwise by 11 major types of structural genes, including PAL (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase), C4H (cinnamate-4-hydroxylase), 4CL (4-coumaroyl: CoA-ligase), CHS (chalcone synthase), CHI (chalcone isomerase), F3H (flavanone 3-hydroxylase), F3'H (flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase), F3'5'H (flavonoid 3'5'-hydroxylase), DFR (dihydroflavonol 4-reductase), ANS (anthocyanidin synthase), and UFGT (UDP-glucose: flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase) [6][7][8]. The pathway has been well studied and many structural genes have been identified in plants, including in Arabidopsis thaliana [9], apple [10], eggplant [11], Senecio cruentus [12], and sweet cherry [13].…”

“…Anthocyanins are considered as effective markers for monitoring ripening stages and the organoleptic quality of fruits [25]. Fang et al [8] demonstrated that the color of 'Furongli' plum (Prunus salicina) changed from green to red during ripening, which was associated with an evident increase in the anthocyanin content, being 53.85-fold higher at 135 days after flowering (DAF) in comparison to that at 105 DAF. Similar phenomena have been documented in apple (Malus domestica) [26], grapevine (Vitis vinifera) [27], strawberry (Fragaria spp.)…”

Transcriptional reprogramming strategies and miRNA-mediated regulation networks of Taxus media induced into callus cells from tissues

“…Expression patterns were drawn by Morpheus (https://software. broadinstitute.org/morpheus/) with defaulting parameters, and Pearson co-expression coefficient values were analyzed by CORREL formula within Excel 2016 [55,56].…”