Expansion of PmBEAT genes in the Prunus mume genome induces characteristic floral scent production

Fei Bao; Anqi Ding; Tengxun Zhang; Le Luo; Jia Wang; Tangren Cheng; Qixiang Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41438-018-0104-4

Expansion of PmBEAT genes in the Prunus mume genome induces characteristic floral scent production

Hortic Res. 2019 Feb 1:6:24. doi: 10.1038/s41438-018-0104-4. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Fei Bao¹, Anqi Ding^{1

2}, Tengxun Zhang^{1

2}, Le Luo¹, Jia Wang¹, Tangren Cheng¹, Qixiang Zhang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ 1Beijing Key Laboratory of Ornamental Plants Germplasm Innovation & Molecular Breeding, National Engineering Research Center for Floriculture, Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment, Engineering Research Center of Landscape Environment of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants of Ministry of Education, School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083 China.
² 2Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular Design, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083 China.

Abstract

Prunus mume is the only plant in the genus Prunus of the Rosaceae family with a characteristic floral scent, and the main component of this scent is benzyl acetate. By contrast, benzyl acetate is not synthesized in Prunus persica flowers. Here, we searched for benzyl alcohol acetyltransferase (BEAT) genes based on genomic data from P. mume and P. persica and found 44 unique PmBEATs in P. mume. These genes, which were mainly detected in clusters on chromosomes, originated from gene duplication events during the species evolution of P. mume, and retroduplication and tandem duplication were the two dominant duplication patterns. The genes PmBEAT34, PmBEAT36 and PmBEAT37, which were generated by tandem duplication, were highly expressed in flowers, and their highest levels were detected during the blooming stage. In vitro, PmBEAT34, PmBEAT3, and PmBEAT37 all had benzyl alcohol acetyltransferase activity that was localized in the cytoplasm. Overexpression of the PmBEAT36 or PmBEAT37 genes increased benzyl acetate production in the petal protoplasts of P. mume, and interference in the expression of these genes slightly decreased the benzyl acetate content. In addition, light and temperature regulated the expression of the PmBEAT34, PmBEAT36 and PmBEAT37 genes. According to these results, we hypothesize that the expansion of the PmBEAT genes in the genome induce the characteristic floral scent of P. mume.