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A comparative physiological and transcriptional study of carotenoid biosynthesis in white and red grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.)

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Abstract

Accumulation of lycopene in citrus fruits is an unusual feature restricted to selected mutants. Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) is the Citrus specie with greater number of red-fleshed mutants, but the molecular bases of this alteration are not fully understood. To gain knowledge into the mechanisms implicated in this alteration, we conducted a comparative analysis of carotenoid profile and of the expression of genes related to carotenoid biosynthesis and catabolism in flavedo and pulp of two grapefruit cultivars with marked differences in colouration: the white Marsh and the red Star Ruby. Mature green fruit of Marsh accumulated chloroplastic carotenoids, while mature tissues lacked carotenoids. However, accumulation of downstream products such as abscisic acid (ABA) and expression of its biosynthetic genes, 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED1 and NCED2), increased after the onset of colouration. In contrast, red grapefruit accumulated lycopene, phytoene and phytofluene, while ABA content and NCED gene expression were lower than in Marsh, suggesting a blockage in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway. Expression analysis of three genes of the isoprenoid pathway and nine of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway revealed virtually no differences in flavedo and pulp between both genotypes, except for the chromoplast-specific lycopene cyclase 2 (β-LCY2) which was lower in the pulp of the red grapefruit. The proportion in the expression of the allele with high (β-LCY2a) and low (β-LCY2b) activity was also similar in the pulp of both genotypes. Therefore, results suggest that reduced expression of β-LCY2 appears to be responsible of lycopene accumulation in the red Star Ruby grapefruit.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Dr. L. Gonzalez-Candelas (IATA-CSIC, Valencia) for providing the plasmids with MEP probes. We thank Dr. L. Navarro (IVIA, Moncada, Valencia) for the use of the Citrus Germplasm Bank. The technical assistance of Amparo Beneyto is gratefully acknowledged. This work has been supported by research grants AGL2009-11558 and AGL-2012-34573 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Economia y Competitividad, Spain). Joanna Lado is the recipient of a JAE-pre-fellowship from CSIC (Fondo Social Europeo). Financial support by PROMETEO2010/010 (Generalitat Valenciana) and Fun-C-Food (CSD2007-0063C, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) is also acknowledged.

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  1. Berta Alquezar

    Present address: Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, Carretera Moncada-Naquera Km 5, 46113, Moncada, Valencia, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Avda. Catedrático Agustín Escardino 7, 46980, Paterna, Valencia, Spain

    Berta Alquezar, Maria J. Rodrigo, Joanna Lado & Lorenzo Zacarías

  2. Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), Camino a la Represa s/n, Salto, Uruguay

    Joanna Lado

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  1. Berta Alquezar
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  4. Lorenzo Zacarías
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Correspondence to Lorenzo Zacarías.

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Communicated by W.-W. Guo

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Alquezar, B., Rodrigo, M.J., Lado, J. et al. A comparative physiological and transcriptional study of carotenoid biosynthesis in white and red grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.). Tree Genetics & Genomes 9, 1257–1269 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-013-0635-7

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