Comparative transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveal differences in flavonoid biosynthesis between PCNA and PCA persimmon fruit

Yiru Wang; Yujing Suo; Weijuan Han; Huawei Li; Zhenxu Wang; Songfeng Diao; Peng Sun; Jianmin Fu

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1130047

Comparative transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveal differences in flavonoid biosynthesis between PCNA and PCA persimmon fruit

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Feb 27:14:1130047. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1130047. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yiru Wang¹, Yujing Suo¹, Weijuan Han¹, Huawei Li¹, Zhenxu Wang², Songfeng Diao¹, Peng Sun¹, Jianmin Fu¹

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute of Non-Timber Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Zhengzhou, China.
² Food Inspection Center, Henan Institute of Product Quality Technology, Zhengzhou, China.

Abstract

The fruit of the persimmon (Diospyros kaki.) has high economic and nutritional value and is rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are essential secondary metabolisms in plants. The association between persimmon astringency and changes in the proanthocyanidins (a flavonoid subclass) content is well-known. However, information on the relationships between different astringency types and other flavonoid subclasses and biosynthetic genes is more limited. In this study, an initial correlation analysis between total flavonoids and fruit astringency type, and KEGG analysis of metabolites showed that flavonoid-related pathways were linked to differences between mature pollination-constant non-astringent (PCNA) varieties ('Jiro' and 'Yohou') and pollination-constant astringent (PCA) fruit varieties ('Zhongshi5' and 'Huojing'). Based on these findings, variations in the expression of genes and metabolites associated with flavonoid biosynthesis were investigated between typical PCNA ('Jiro') and PCA ('Huojing') persimmons during fruit development. The flavonoid concentration in 'Huojing' fruit was significantly higher than that of 'Jiro' fruit, especially, in levels of proanthocyanin precursor epicatechin and anthocyanin cyanidin derivatives. Combined WGCNA and KEGG analyses showed that genes such as PAL, C4H, CHI, CHS, F3H, F3'5'H, FLS, DFR, ANR, ANS, and UF3GT in the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways may be significant factors impacting the proanthocyanin precursor and anthocyanin contents. Moreover, interactions between the R2R3MYB (evm.TU.contig7272.598) and WD40 (evm.TU.contig3208.5) transcription factors were found to be associated with the above structural genes. These findings provide essential information on flavonoid biosynthesis and its regulation in the persimmon and lay a foundation for further investigation into how astringency types affect flavor components in PCNA and PCA persimmons.

Keywords: flavonoid biosynthesis; fruit; metabonomic; persimmon; transcriptomic.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071801) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1000600 and 2018YFD1000606).