Molecular and Metabolic Insights into Anthocyanin Biosynthesis for Leaf Color Change in Chokecherry (Padus virginiana)

Abstract

Chokecherry (Padus virginiana L.) is an important landscaping tree with high ornamental value because of its colorful purplish-red leaves (PRL). The quantifications of anthocyanins and the mechanisms of leaf color change in this species remain unknown. The potential biosynthetic and regulatory mechanisms and the accumulation patterns of anthocyanins in P. virginiana that determine three leaf colors were investigated by combined analysis of the transcriptome and the metabolome. The difference of chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin content correlated with the formation of P. virginiana leaf color. Using enrichment and correlation network analysis, we found that anthocyanin accumulation differed in different colored leaves and that the accumulation of malvidin 3-O-glucoside (violet) and pelargonidin 3-O-glucoside (orange-red) significantly correlated with the leaf color change from green to purple-red. The flavonoid biosynthesis genes (PAL, CHS and CHI) and their transcriptional regulators (MYB, HD-Zip and bHLH) exhibited specific increased expression during the purple-red periods. Two genes encoding enzymes in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway, UDP glucose-flavonoid 3-O-glucosyl-transferase (UFGT) and anthocyanidin 3-O-glucosyltransferase (BZ1), seem to be critical for suppressing the formation of the aforesaid anthocyanins. In PRL, the expression of the genes encoding for UGFT and BZ1 enzymes was substantially higher than in leaves of other colors and may be related with the purple-red color change. These results may facilitate genetic modification or selection for further improvement in ornamental qualities of P. virginiana.

Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly for Acer pseudosieboldianum and Highlights to Mechanisms for Leaf Color and Shape Change

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that the formation of leaf color in plants is mainly regulated by anthocyanins, which could influence pigmentation and relative gene expression ( Jia et al, 2020 ; Qiu et al, 2020 ). It has been shown that six anthocyanidins, pelargonidin, malvidin, peonidin, cyanidin, delphinidin, and petunidin, are common in leaf/fruit color changes ( Sulc et al, 2017 ; Li et al, 2021c ). In our study, 14 differential anthocyanins were identified in the leaves of A. pseudosieboldianum and mainly contained three categories of pelargonidin, cyanidin and peonidin.…”

Transcriptome and Metabolome Profiling to Explore the Causes of Purple Leaves Formation in Non-Heading Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis Makino var. mutliceps Hort.)

“…Freeze-dried leaves were used for extracting chlorophyll and carotenoids referring to the method described by Li et al [ 29 ]. The samples of non-heading Chinese cabbage (0.2 g) were cultured in 5 mL of 96% ethanol ( v / v ) for 24 h at 24 ◦C, then vortexed for 30 s after culturing for 12 h in the dark.…”

Integrated Transcriptome and Metabolome Analyses Reveal the Anthocyanin Biosynthesis Pathway in AmRosea1 Overexpression 84K Poplar

“…The total RNA extraction and library construction were carried out according to Li et al (2021) . The libraries were sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq platform with an average reading length of 125 bp/150 bp.…”

“…PtActin (amplification primers were F: 5′-AAT​ACC​CCA​TTG​AGC​ACG​G-3′, R: 5′- ACT​CAC​ACC​ATC​ACC​AGA​ATC-3′) were selected as an internal reference gene. The amplification system and procedure were carried out according to Li et al (2021) . The relative expression level of genes was calculated using the 2 −∆∆CT method ( Livak and Schmittgen.…”