Integration of metabolome and transcriptome analyses reveals the mechanism of anthocyanin accumulation in purple radish leaves

Quanming Pu; Zihan He; Chengyong Xiang; Songmei Shi; Lincheng Zhang; Peng Yang

doi:10.1007/s12298-022-01245-w

Integration of metabolome and transcriptome analyses reveals the mechanism of anthocyanin accumulation in purple radish leaves

Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2022 Oct;28(10):1799-1811. doi: 10.1007/s12298-022-01245-w. Epub 2022 Nov 7.

Authors

Quanming Pu¹, Zihan He¹, Chengyong Xiang¹, Songmei Shi², Lincheng Zhang³, Peng Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ Nanchong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchong, 637000 Sichuan China.
² College of Resource and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716 China.
³ College of Life Sciences, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025 China.

Abstract

Anthocyanins are natural pigments and play significant roles in multiple growth, development, and stress response processes in plants. The vegetables with high anthocyanin content have better colours, higher antioxidant activity than green vegetables and are potent antioxidants with health benefits. However, the mechanism of anthocyanin accumulation in purple and green leaves of Raphanus sativus (radish) is poorly understood and needs further investigation. In the present study, the pigment content in a green leaf cultivar "RA9" and a purple-leaf cultivar "MU17" was characterized and revealed that the MU17 had significantly increased accumulation of anthocyanins and reduced content of chlorophyll and carotenoid compared with that in RA9. Meanwhile, these two cultivars were subjected to a combination of metabolomic and transcriptome studies. A total of 52 massively content-changed metabolites and 3463 differentially expressed genes were discovered in MU17 compared with RA9. In addition, the content of significantly increased flavonoids (such as pelargonidin and cyanidin) was identified in MU17 compared to RA9 using an integrated analysis of metabolic and transcriptome data. Moreover, the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction results also confirmed the differences in the expression of genes related to pathways of flavonoids and anthocyanin metabolism in MU17 leaves. The present findings provide valuable information for anthocyanin metabolism and further genetic manipulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis in radish leaves.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-022-01245-w.

Keywords: Anthocyanin; Metabolome; Radish leaves; Transcriptome.

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