Genetic and molecular analysis of the anthocyanin pigmentation pathway in Epimedium

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

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1133616

Genetic and molecular analysis of the anthocyanin pigmentation pathway in Epimedium

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Mar 27:14:1133616. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1133616. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yaolei Mi¹, Ruikun He², Huihua Wan¹, Xiangxiao Meng¹, Di Liu³, Wenjun Huang⁴, Yanjun Zhang⁴, Zubaida Yousaf⁵, Hongwen Huang⁶, Shilin Chen^{1

7}, Ying Wang⁸, Wei Sun^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Beijing for Identification and Safety Evaluation of Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
² By-Health Institute of Nutrition and health. By-health Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
³ College of Pharmacy, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
⁵ Department of Botany, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁶ Lushan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China.
⁷ Institute of Herbgenomics, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
⁸ South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Flower color is an ideal trait for studying the molecular basis for phenotypic variations in natural populations of species. Epimedium (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.

Methods: In this work, the anthocyanidins of eight different Epimedium 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.

Results: 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 Arabidopsis mutants together with overexpression of EsF3'5'H in wild type Arabidopsis analysis revealed that these genes were functional at the protein level, based on the accumulation of anthocyanin pigments.

Discussion: These results strongly suggest that transcriptional regulatory changes determine the loss of anthocyanins to be convergent in the floral tissue of Epimedium species.

Keywords: Epimedium; anthocyanin; gene expression; sepal; spur.

Grants and funding

The authors are grateful for finical support from the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CI2021A04806 and CI2021A04008) and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC3501703).