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Mapping and expression profiling reveal an inserted fragment from purple mustard involved anthocyanin accumulation in Chinese cabbage

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Abstract

Anthocyanins are the major pigments responsible for purple coloration in flowers, fruits and leaves, and the genes involved in their biosynthetic pathway have been identified in many plants. A purple-leaf Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) was bred by interspecies crossing between Chinese cabbage and purple-leaf mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Coss. var. foliosa L. H. Bailey]. In this study, high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis indicated purple coloration in Chinese cabbage is due to the accumulation of the same kind of cyaninin as in purple mustard. To elucidate the genetic factors controlling anthocyanin accumulation in this purple-leaf Chinese cabbage, we mapped the anthocyanin gene from the mustard (Anm) locus in an F2 population and performed expression profiling of anthocyanin-related genes. A genetic analysis revealed that the purple-leaf phenotype is a qualitative trait and that its inheritance is unstable in purple-leaf Chinese cabbage. Mapping insertion/deletion markers from 288 individuals of the F2 population located the Anm locus within a 2.5-cM interval on B. rapa chromosome A02. The sequencing and alignment of the amplified fragments demonstrated that purple Chinese cabbage contains fragments of purple mustard on chromosome A02. We evaluated the expression profiles of 12 anthocyanin-related genes on A02 by reverse-transcription and quantitative real-time PCR methods, which revealed that the expression levels of five genes were higher in purple Chinese cabbage than in the non-purple variety. These results offer insights into the molecular mechanism of anthocyanin biosynthesis and improve the knowledge on molecular breeding of purple-type Chinese cabbage.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Chinese 973 Program Grant (2012CB113900) and a Chinese 863 Program grant (2012AA100100), both to RS. This study was also funded by the Science and Technology Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS-ASTIP-IVFCAAS). Research was carried out in the Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, P. R. China.

Author contribution statement

SZ constructed the mapping populations and performed the genetic analysis and anthocyanin profile. PL performed mapping and expression analyses and wrote the paper. WQ extracted the DNA of the F2 population and provided advice on the manuscript. SFZ, FL, HZ and XW provided advice on experiments. RS designed and supervised the work. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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    1. Department of Chinese Cabbage, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhongguancun, Nandajie No. 12, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China

      Shujiang Zhang, Peirong Li, Wei Qian, Shifan Zhang, Fei Li, Hui Zhang, Xiaowu Wang & Rifei Sun

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    1. Shujiang Zhang
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    Correspondence to Rifei Sun.

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    Shujiang Zhang and Peirong Li have equally contributed to this work and are regarded as joint first authors.

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    Zhang, S., Li, P., Qian, W. et al. Mapping and expression profiling reveal an inserted fragment from purple mustard involved anthocyanin accumulation in Chinese cabbage. Euphytica 212, 83–95 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-016-1761-8

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