Transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of autumn leaf color change in Fraxinus angustifolia

Yanlong Wang; Jinpeng Zhen; Xiaoyu Che; Kang Zhang; Guowei Zhang; Huijuan Yang; Jing Wen; Jinxin Wang; Jiming Wang; Bo He; Ailong Yu; Yanhui Li; Zhigang Wang

doi:10.7717/peerj.15319

Transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of autumn leaf color change in Fraxinus angustifolia

PeerJ. 2023 May 12:11:e15319. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15319. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yanlong Wang^#¹, Jinpeng Zhen^#², Xiaoyu Che¹, Kang Zhang², Guowei Zhang³, Huijuan Yang¹, Jing Wen¹, Jinxin Wang¹, Jiming Wang^{1

4}, Bo He⁵, Ailong Yu⁶, Yanhui Li¹, Zhigang Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Landscape Architecture and Tourism, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China.
² Hebei Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Molecular Pathology, Hebei Bioinformatics Utilization and Technological Innovation Center for Agricultural Microbes, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China.
³ Hongyashan State-owned Forest Farm in Hebei Province, Baoding, China.
⁴ College of Grammar, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao, China.
⁵ Green Building Development Center of Baoding, Baoding, China.
⁶ Flower and Wood Technical Service Center of Hengshui, Hengshui, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Fraxinus angustifolia is a type of street tree and shade tree with ornamental value. It has a beautiful shape and yellow or reddish purple autumn leaves, but its leaf color formation mechanism and molecular regulation network need to be studied. In this study, we integrated the metabolomes and transcriptomes of stage 1 (green leaf) and stage 2 (red-purple leaf) leaves at two different developmental stages to screen differential candidate genes and metabolites related to leaf color variation. The results of stage 1 and stage 2 transcriptome analysis showed that a total of 5,827 genes were differentially expressed, including 2,249 upregulated genes and 3,578 downregulated genes. Through functional enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes, we found that they were involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, pigment metabolism, carotene metabolism, terpenoid biosynthesis, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, pigment accumulation, and other biological processes. By measuring the metabolites of Fraxinus angustifolia leaves, we found the metabolites closely related to the differentially expressed genes in two different periods of Fraxinus angustifolia, among which flavonoid compounds were the main differential metabolites. Through transcriptome and metabolomics data association analysis, we screened nine differentially expressed genes related to anthocyanins. Transcriptome and qRT-PCR results showed that these nine genes showed significant expression differences in different stages of the sample, and we speculate that they are likely to be the main regulatory factors in the molecular mechanism of leaf coloration. This is the first time that we have analyzed the transcriptome combination metabolome in the process of leaf coloration of Fraxinus angustifolia, which has important guiding significance for directional breeding of colored-leaf Fraxinus species and will also give new insights for enriching the landscape.

Keywords: Anthocyanin; Fraxinus angustifolia; Gene expression; Metabolomes; Transcriptomes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anthocyanins / genetics
Flavonoids
Fraxinus* / genetics
Gene Expression Profiling / methods
Metabolomics
Plant Breeding
Plant Leaves / genetics
Transcriptome* / genetics

Substances

Anthocyanins
Flavonoids

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Key Project of Education Department of Hebei Province (ZD2022009), the National Key Research and Development Project (2020YFD1000700), and the Funding Program for Visiting Scholar Abroad (C20200334). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.