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Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Flower Pigments

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Plant Developmental Biology - Biotechnological Perspectives

Abstract

The major pigments responsible for flower colour are flavonoids (particularly anthocyanins) and carotenoids, with betalains occurring in a relatively small number of species. Flavonoids and betalains are water-soluble and generally located in the vacuole. Carotenoids are lipid-soluble, plastid-located terpenoids, which for pigmentation of flowers accumulate in specialized plastids called chromoplasts. The biosynthetic pathways for flavonoids and carotenoids have been characterized extensively, with corresponding DNA sequences available for all the core biosynthetic steps. The production of flower pigments is under developmental and environmental control, and coordinated with other floral traits like scent to maximize pollination. For flavonoids, there is now considerable knowledge of the transcription factors (TFs) that control the activity of the biosynthetic pathway in response to developmental and environmental signals. There has been much progress towards predictive metabolic engineering of the production of anthocyanins. Gene technology is well established for preventing production of anthocyanins in specific tissues, and there has also been success in introducing new anthocyanin types for colours novel to the target species. TF genes have been demonstrated to be powerful gene technologies for increasing anthocyanin production. For carotenoids, approaches to increasing levels through over-expression of multiple biosynthetic genes are well established from studies on food crops such as rice and potato.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, 11600, Palmerston North, 4442, New Zealand

    K. M. Davies & K. E. Schwinn

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  1. K. M. Davies
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  2. K. E. Schwinn
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Correspondence to K. M. Davies .

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  1. New Era College, Jalan Bukit, Kajang, 43000, Malaysia

    Eng Chong Pua

  2. Dept. Plant Sciences Division, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, LE12 5RD, United Kingdom

    Michael R. Davey

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Davies, K.M., Schwinn, K.E. (2010). Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Flower Pigments. In: Pua, E., Davey, M. (eds) Plant Developmental Biology - Biotechnological Perspectives. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04670-4_9

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