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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1514631
This article is part of the Research Topic Secondary Metabolites in Beverage Plant: Metabolism, Function, and Regulation View all articles

CsRAB, a R2R3-MYB transcription factor from purple tea (Camellia sinensis), positively regulates anthocyanin biosynthesis

Provisionally accepted
Hualing Wu Hualing Wu 1Yayan Pan Yayan Pan 1Erdong Ni Erdong Ni 1Dandan Qin Dandan Qin 1Kaixing Fang Kaixing Fang 1Qing Wang Qing Wang 1Chengwei Yang Chengwei Yang 2Ming Luo Ming Luo 3*Jun Liu Jun Liu 1*
  • 1 Tea Research Institue, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS), Guangzhou, China
  • 2 South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
  • 3 South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In tea (Camellia sinensis), anthocyanins are important secondary metabolites that are linked to leaf color. Anthocyanin biosynthesis is a complex biological process, in which multiple genes including structural and regulatory genes are involved. Here, we describe the cloning and characterizing of a new R2R3-MYB transcription factor gene, CsRAB, isolated from purple tea variety 'Hongfei'. Consistent with its predicted role as a transcription factor, the CsRAB protein localized to nuclei when expressed in onion (Allium cepa) epidermal cell. A dual-luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that CsRAB acts as a transcriptional activator in vivo. CsRAB overexpression in Arabidopsis seedlings led to higher expression levels of anthocyanin biosynthesis-related genes, and consequently, purple stems and higher anthocyanin contents were exhibited in overexpressing lines compared to wild type. The results indicated that CsRAB plays critical roles in positively regulating anthocyanins biosynthesis in tea plants.

    Keywords: secondary metabolism, Anthocyanins, R2R3-MYB gene, Tea (Camellia sinensis), purple tea

    Received: 21 Oct 2024; Accepted: 19 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wu, Pan, Ni, Qin, Fang, Wang, Yang, Luo and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ming Luo, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, 510650, Guangdong Province, China
    Jun Liu, Tea Research Institue, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS), Guangzhou, China

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