The expression level of anthocyanidin synthase determines the anthocyanin content of crabapple (Malus sp.) petals

  • Jie Zhang
  • Zhen-yun Han
  • Ji Tian
  • Xi Zhang
  • Ting-ting Song
  • Yun-cong Yao
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

In addition to contributing to the coloration of plant organs and their defense against herbivores, the consumption of anthocyanins in the human diet has a number of health benefits. Crabapple (Malus sp.) represents a valuable experimental model system to research the mechanisms and regulation of anthocyanin accumulation, in part due to the often vivid and varied petal and leaf coloration that is exhibited by various cultivars. The enzyme anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) plays a pivotal role in anthocyanin biosynthesis; however, the relationship between ANS expression and petal pigmentation has yet to be established in crabapple. To illuminate the mechanism of anthocyanin accumulation in crabapple petals, we evaluated the expression of two crabapple ANS allelic genes (McANS-1 and McANS-2) and the levels of anthocyanins in petals from cultivars with dark red (‘Royalty’) and white (‘Flame’) petals, as well as another (‘Radiant’) whose petals have an intermediate pink color. We determined that the expression of McANS in the three cultivars correlated with the variation of anthocyanin accumulation during different petal developmental stages. Furthermore, transgenic tobacco plants constitutively overexpressing one of the two McANS genes, McANS-1, had showed elevated anthocyanin accumulation and a deeper red coloration in their petals than those from untransformed control lines. In conclusion, we propose that McANS are responsible for anthocyanin accumulation during petal coloration in different crabapple cultivars.

Keywords

Anthocyanins ANS Crabapple Flowers Malus 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Beijing Key Laboratory for Agricultural Application and the Fruit Tree Key Laboratory at the Beijing University of Agriculture and New Technique for providing experimental resources. We are also grateful to all technicians in the BUA Crabapple Germplasm Resource Garden for preparing samples and we thank PlantScribe (http://www.plantscribe.com) for carefully editing this paper. Financial support was provided by National Science and technology support program (2013BAD02B01-4), the Project of Construction of Innovative Teams and Teacher Career Development for Universities and Colleges Under Beijing Municipality (IDHT20140509) and National Modern Agricultural Science City Achievement for People Service Technology Demonstration Project (Z121100007412003).

Supplementary material

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Copyright information

© Franciszek Górski Institute of Plant Physiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jie Zhang
    • 1
    • 2
  • Zhen-yun Han
    • 1
    • 2
  • Ji Tian
    • 1
    • 2
  • Xi Zhang
    • 1
    • 2
  • Ting-ting Song
    • 1
    • 2
  • Yun-cong Yao
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Plant Science and TechnologyBeijing University of AgricultureBeijingChina
  2. 2.Key Laboratory of New Technology in Agricultural Application of BeijingBeijing University of AgricultureBeijingChina

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