Fu Lili, Ding Zehong, Tie Weiwei, Yang Jinghao, Yan Yan, Hu Wei
Hainan Key Laboratory for Biosafety Monitoring and Molecular Breeding in Off-Season Reproduction Regions, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Resources of Tropical Crops, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China.
Hainan Key Laboratory for Protection and Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, Hainan Institute for Tropical Agricultural Resources, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China.
Front Nutr. 2022 Apr 5;9:842693. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.842693. eCollection 2022.
Yellow roots are of higher nutritional quality and better appearance than white roots in cassava, a crucial tropical and subtropical root crop. In this work, two varieties with yellow and white cassava roots were selected to explore the mechanisms of color formation by using comparative metabolome and transcriptome analyses during seven developmental stages. Compared with the white-rooted cassava, anthocyanins, catechin derivatives, coumarin derivatives, and phenolic acids accumulated at higher levels in yellow-rooted cassava. Anthocyanins were particularly enriched and displayed different accumulation patterns during tuberous root development. This was confirmed by metabolic comparisons between five yellow-rooted and five white-rooted cassava accessions. The integrative metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis further revealed a coordinate regulation of 16 metabolites and 11 co-expression genes participating in anthocyanin biosynthesis, suggesting a vital role of anthocyanin biosynthesis in yellow pigmentation in cassava tuberous roots. In addition, two transcriptional factors, i.e., and , were also identified to co-express with these anthocyanin biosynthesis genes. These findings expand our knowledge on the role of anthocyanin biosynthesis in cassava root color formation, and offer useful information for the genetic breeding of yellow-rooted cassava in the future.
木薯是一种重要的热带和亚热带块根作物，黄根木薯的营养品质和外观优于白根木薯。在本研究中，选取了两个分别具有黄色和白色木薯根的品种，通过比较代谢组学和转录组学分析，探究其在七个发育阶段颜色形成的机制。与白根木薯相比，花青素、儿茶素衍生物、香豆素衍生物和酚酸在黄根木薯中积累水平更高。花青素尤其富集，且在块根发育过程中呈现出不同的积累模式。五个黄根木薯和五个白根木薯种质间的代谢比较证实了这一点。代谢组学和转录组学的综合分析进一步揭示了参与花青素生物合成的16种代谢物和11个共表达基因的协同调控，表明花青素生物合成在木薯块根黄色素沉着中起着至关重要的作用。此外，还鉴定出两个转录因子，即 和 ，它们与这些花青素生物合成基因共表达。这些发现扩展了我们对花青素生物合成在木薯根颜色形成中作用的认识，并为未来黄根木薯的遗传育种提供了有用信息。
