Overexpression of a Rosa rugosa Thunb. NUDX gene enhances biosynthesis of scent volatiles in petunia

Abstract

Rosa rugosa is an important natural perfume plant in China. Rose essential oil is known as ‘liquid gold’ and has high economic and health values. Monoterpenes are the main fragrant components of R. rugosa flower and essential oil. In this study, a member of the hydrolase gene family RrNUDX1 was cloned from Chinese traditional R. rugosa ‘Tang Hong’. Combined analysis of RrNUDX1 gene expression and the aroma components in different development stages and different parts of flower organ, we found that the main aroma component content was consistent with the gene expression pattern. The RrNUDX1 overexpressed Petunia hybrida was acquired via Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation systems. The blades of the transgenic petunias became wider and its growth vigor became strong with stronger fragrance. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry analysis showed that the contents of the main aroma components of the transgenic petunias including methyl benzoate significantly increased. These findings indicate that the RrNUDX1 gene plays a role in enhancing the fragrance of petunia flowers, and they could lay an important foundation for the homeotic transformation of RrNUDX1 in R. rugosa for cultivating new R. rugosa varieties of high-yield and -quality essential oil.

Chemistry, biosynthesis and biology of floral volatiles: roles in pollination and other functions

“…The methyl group itself is derived from S-adenosyl methionine (SAM). Recently, a SABATH O-methyltransferase was characterized that forms methyl hexanoate (57), the major constituent of oral scent of the water lily Victoria cruziana (Fig. 6).…”

“…56 More recently, a Nudix hydrolase from another rose species, Rosa rugosa, was identied, and expression of the encoding gene was shown to correlate with the formation of geraniol and derivatives, such as citronellol (77) and citronellyl acetate (78) as in R. x hybrida. 57 When terpene synthase products in owers are further metabolized, the reactions involved are frequently oxidations carried out by cytochrome P450s, the largest family of enzymes in plant metabolism. A series of fascinating studies has described the role of cytochrome P450s in the oxidation of terpenes in Arabidopsis thaliana owers.…”

“…56 More recently, a Nudix hydrolase from another rose species, Rosa rugosa , was identified, and expression of the encoding gene was shown to correlate with the formation of geraniol and derivatives, such as citronellol ( 77 ) and citronellyl acetate ( 78 ) as in R. x hybrida. 57 …”

Characterization of volatiles in flowers from four Rosa chinensis cultivars by HS-SPME-GC × GC-QTOFMS

“…Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) is a convenient alternative to more conventional methods for extracting volatiles and semivolatiles from different sources, as it extracts volatiles without affecting the extracted chemicals ( Özgenç et al., 2017 ; Al-Dalali et al., 2019 ). HS-SPME has been successfully used to extract volatiles from plants, such as Olea europaea , Trigonellafoenum-graecum ( Baccouri et al., 2022 ; Rajhi et al., 2022 ), Rosa rugose and Rosa roxburghii ( Sheng et al., 2021 ; Huang et al., 2022 ). The two-dimensional gas chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-QTOFMS) methodology has been used to profile the volatile organic compounds in Malus domestica , Rosa hybrida and Cucumis sativus ( Risticevic et al., 2012 ; Pico et al., 2018 ; Amrapali et al., 2020 ; Jo et al., 2022 ).…”

Nudix hydrolase 14 influences plant development and grain chalkiness in rice

“…Moreover, transcriptome and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analyses showed that 10 VvNUDX genes might play roles in grapevine berry development ( WANG et al., 2022 ). In addition, overexpression of RrNUDX1 and RwNUDX1-2 separately enhances biosynthesis of scent volatiles in petunia and sesquiterpene biosynthesis in Rosa × wichurana ( Sun et al., 2020a ; Sheng et al., 2021 ). Therefore, the NUDX protein plays a diversified role in physiological and biochemical processes, such as cell homeostasis, immune regulation, and oxidative stress response.…”