Manipulating a Single Transcription Factor, Ant1, Promotes Anthocyanin Accumulation in Barley Grains

Abstract

Barley has abundant anthocyanin-rich accessions, which renders it an ideal model to investigate the regulatory mechanism of anthocyanin biosynthesis. This study functionally characterized two transcription factors: Ant1 and Ant2. Sequence alignment showed that the coding sequences of Ant1 and Ant2 are conserved among 11 colored hulless barley and noncolored barley varieties. The expression profiles of Ant1 and Ant2 were divergent between species, and significantly higher expression was found in two colored Qingke accessions. The co-expression of Ant1 and Ant2 resulted in purple pigmentation in transient transformation systems via the promotion of the transcription of four structural genes. Ant1 interacted with Ant2, and overexpression of Ant1 activated the transcription of Ant2. Moreover, overexpression of Ant1 led to anthocyanin accumulation in the pericarp and aleurone layer of transgenic barley grains. Overall, our results suggest that anthocyanin-enriched barley grains can be produced by manipulating Ant1 expression.

In Vitro and In Vivo Digestive Fate and Antioxidant Activities of Polyphenols from Hulless Barley: Impact of Various Thermal Processing Methods and β-Glucan

“…In a recent study, Deng et al 4 reported that the total content of phenolic fractions in four HB varieties accounted from 57.9 to 73.1 mg/100 g with the total ferulic acid content ranging from 48.6 to 55.3 mg/100 g. Ge et al 18 reported that the TPC in different color barley detected by LC−MS ranged from 250 to 1016 μg/g with a total of 24 phenolic acid and flavonoids, however, in which the vitexin accounted from 55.8 to 95.2% of the total phenolic compounds. Herein, the large difference between our study and the previous results may be attributed to the variations of genotype and cultivar of HB, 31,33,35 in particular the methods of extraction and detection. 18,28 Notably, the compositions of free and bound polyphenols in HB changed obviously after processing by FR, SF, SFE, and PE.…”

Mining of Potential Gene Resources for Breeding Nutritionally Improved Maize

“…These include many transcription factors that regulate anthocyanin synthesis. For example, GLK1 [ 133 ], AN1 [ 134 ], AN3 [ 135 ] and ANT1 [ 136 ] are positive regulators, while GmMYBR [ 137 ] is a negative regulator for anthocyanin synthesis. A double-stranded RNA binding protein, DRB3 has also been shown to inhibit anthocyanins biosynthesis [ 138 ].…”

Accumulation and regulation of anthocyanins in white and purple Tibetan Hulless Barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum Hook. f.) revealed by combined de novo transcriptomics and metabolomics

“…Gordeeva et al revealed that the dominant alleles of both the Ant1 and Ant2 genes were required for anthocyanin accumulation in pericarp of barley [ 29 ]. Overexpression of Ant1 led to anthocyanin accumulation in the pericarp and aleurone layer of transgenic barley grains [ 30 ]. However, it remains unclear which structural genes and transcription factors play the major role in seedcoat color formation of purple Tibetan hulless barley.…”