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Carotenoid gene expression explains the difference of carotenoid accumulation in carrot root tissues

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Abstract

Main conclusion Variations in gene expression can partially explain the difference of carotenoid accumulation in secondary phloem and xylem of fleshy carrot roots.

The carrot root is well divided into two different tissues separated by vascular cambium: the secondary phloem and xylem. The equilibrium between these two tissues represents an important issue for carrot quality, but the knowledge about the respective carotenoid accumulation is sparse. The aim of this work was (i) to investigate if variation in carotenoid biosynthesis gene expression could explain differences in carotenoid content in phloem and xylem tissues and (ii) to investigate if this regulation is differentially modulated in the respective tissues by water-restricted growing conditions. In this work, five carrot genotypes contrasting by their root color were studied in control and water-restricted conditions. Carotenoid content and the relative expression of 13 genes along the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway were measured in the respective tissues. Results showed that in orange genotypes and the purple one, carotenoid content was higher in phloem compared to xylem. For the red one, no differences were observed. Moreover, in control condition, variations in gene expression explained the different carotenoid accumulations in both tissues, while in water-restricted condition, no clear association between gene expression pattern and variations in carotenoid content could be detected except in orange-rooted genotypes. This work shows that the structural aspect of carrot root is more important for carotenoid accumulation in relation with gene expression levels than the consequences of expression changes upon water restriction.

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Fig. 1

(adapted from Perrin et al. 2016)

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Acknowledgements

We thank Muriel Bahut, Laurence Hibrand Saint-Oyant, and Annie Chastellier from the ANAN platform (analyze of nucleic acids—UMR1345 Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences IRHS, France) for their technical help. We thank Marie-Noëlle Brisset and Matthieu Gaucher for the discussions about gene expressions and clustering analysis. We thank Rémi Gardet, Nicolas Dousset, Jacky Granger, and Daniel Sochard from INEM (Mutualized experimental facilities—UMR1345 Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences IRHS, France) for the experimental installation. Funding was provided by Région Pays de la Loire.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRHS, Agrocampus Ouest, INRA, SFR QuaSaV, Université d’Angers, 49071, Beaucouzé, France

    Florent Perrin, Laura Hartmann, Cécile Dubois-Laurent, Sébastien Huet, Latifa Hamama, Mathilde Briard, Didier Peltier, Séverine Gagné & Emmanuel Geoffriau

  2. Faculty of Biology II, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Ralf Welsch

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  1. Florent Perrin
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  2. Laura Hartmann
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  3. Cécile Dubois-Laurent
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  5. Sébastien Huet
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  6. Latifa Hamama
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  9. Séverine Gagné
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  10. Emmanuel Geoffriau
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Correspondence to Emmanuel Geoffriau.

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Perrin, F., Hartmann, L., Dubois-Laurent, C. et al. Carotenoid gene expression explains the difference of carotenoid accumulation in carrot root tissues. Planta 245, 737–747 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-016-2637-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-016-2637-9

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