AUTHOR=Mi Yaolei , He Ruikun , Wan Huihua , Meng Xiangxiao , Liu Di , Huang Wenjun , Zhang Yanjun , Yousaf Zubaida , Huang Hongwen , Chen Shilin , Wang Ying , Sun Wei 

TITLE=Genetic and molecular analysis of the anthocyanin pigmentation pathway in Epimedium

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1133616

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1133616

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Flower color is an ideal trait for studying the molecular basis for phenotypic variations in natural populations of species. <italic>Epimedium</italic> (Berberidaceae) species exhibit a wide range of flower colors resulting from the varied accumulation of anthocyanins and other pigments in their spur-like petals and petaloid sepals.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>In this work, the anthocyanidins of eight different <italic>Epimedium</italic> species with different floral pigmentation phenotypes were analyzed using HPLC. Twelve genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis were cloned and sequenced, and their expression was quantified.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The expression levels of the catalytic enzyme genes DFR and ANS were significantly decreased in four species showing loss of floral pigmentation. Complementation of EsF3’H and EsDFR in corresponding <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> mutants together with overexpression of EsF3’5’H in wild type <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> analysis revealed that these genes were functional at the protein level, based on the accumulation of anthocyanin pigments.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>These results strongly suggest that transcriptional regulatory changes determine the loss of anthocyanins to be convergent in the floral tissue of <italic>Epimedium</italic> species.</p></sec>