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Constitutive expression of Arabidopsis MYB transcription factor, AtMYB11, in tobacco modulates flavonoid biosynthesis in favor of flavonol accumulation

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Heterologous expression of AtMYB11 , a flavonol-specific transcription factor from Arabidopsis , in tobacco modulates flavonoid biosynthesis, however, with a lower efficiency as compared to its paralogs AtMYB12 and AtMYB111.

Abstract

Transcriptional regulation is the most important means for controlling flavonoid biosynthesis under temporal and spatial cues. In Arabidopsis, three functionally redundant MYB transcription factors (AtMYB11, AtMYB111 and AtMYB12) have been characterized as flavonol-specific regulators which positively modulate expression of biosynthetic genes involved in flavonol biosynthesis. Based on expression of AtMYB111 and AtMYB12 in heterologous systems, studies suggest that these transcription factors can be used to develop plants with enhanced flavonol biosynthesis. The potential of AtMYB11 to activate flavonol biosynthesis in a heterologous system has not yet been studied. In this study, the regulatory potential of AtMYB11 has been studied in Nicotiana tabacum by developing transgenic plants constitutively expressing AtMYB11. Our analysis using leaf and petal tissues of the transgenic plants indicates that AtMYB11 enhances flavonol and chlorogenic acid (CGA) biosynthesis in tobacco through up-regulation of the biosynthetic genes. Activation of flavonol biosynthesis in tobacco by AtMYB11 is not as pronounced as with AtMYB12 or AtMYB111. Taken together, these results reveal a differential regulatory mechanism in plants for modulating flavonol biosynthesis. This study demonstrated that AtMYB11 can be strategically used for enhancing the health beneficial flavonols in species other than Arabidopsis.

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Acknowledgments

Research was supported by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi in the form of Network projects PlaGen (BSC-0107). AP acknowledges Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi for Senior Research Fellowship.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in the present investigation.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ashutosh Pandey

    Present address: National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Mohali, 160071, Punjab, India

  2. Prashant Misra

    Present address: CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), Canal Road, Jammu, 180001, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow, 226 001, India

    Ashutosh Pandey, Prashant Misra & Prabodh Kumar Trivedi

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  1. Ashutosh Pandey
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  2. Prashant Misra
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Correspondence to Prabodh Kumar Trivedi.

Additional information

Communicated by K. K. Kamo.

Electronic supplementary material

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299_2015_1803_MOESM1_ESM.ppt

Figure S1. HPLC profiles illustrating the various flavonoids in transgenic and WT tobacco plants. (STD) Standards –chlorogenic acid (1), caffic acid (2), rutin (3), kaempferol 3-o rutinoside (4), quercetin (5), and kaempferol (6). (WT-WH) WT tobacco leaf methanolic extract. (EV-WH) Empty vector control leaf methanolic extract. (MYB11-WH) AtMYB11-expressing tobacco leaf methanolic extract. (WT-HYD) WT tobacco leaf acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract. (EV-HYD) Empty vector control leaf acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract. (MYB11-HYD) AtMYB11-expressing tobacco leaf acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract. Methanolic as well as acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract of leaf was separated with HPLC. Different flavonols were identified by HPLC coupled with UV and PDA detector. Figure S2. HPLC profiles for quantification of flavonoids in petal tissue of transgenic, WT and EV transformed tobacco plants. (STD) Standards, (1) CGA, (2) caffic acid, (3) rutin, (4) kaempferol 3-o rutinoside, (5) quercetin, and (6) kaempferol. (WT-WH) WT tobacco petal methanolic extract. (EV-WH) Empty vector control petal methanolic extract. (MYB11-WH) AtMYB11-expressing tobacco petal methanolic extract. (WT-HYD) WT tobacco petal acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract. (EV-HYD) Empty vector control petal acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract. (MYB11-HYD) AtMYB111-expressing tobacco petal acid-hydrolyzed methanolic extract (PPT 223 kb)

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Pandey, A., Misra, P. & Trivedi, P.K. Constitutive expression of Arabidopsis MYB transcription factor, AtMYB11, in tobacco modulates flavonoid biosynthesis in favor of flavonol accumulation. Plant Cell Rep 34, 1515–1528 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-015-1803-z

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