Xiao Qinzhi, Zhu Yueyi, Cui Guoxian, Zhang Xianwen, Hu Risheng, Deng Zhengyu, Lei Lei, Wu Liwen, Mei Lei
Yongzhou Tobacco Monopoly Bureau of Hunan, Yongzhou, China.
College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2022 Apr 25;13:828042. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.828042. eCollection 2022.
Tobacco is a model plant for studying flower coloration. Flavonoids and carotenoids were reported to contribute to the flower color in many plants. We investigated the mechanism underlying flower color formation in tobacco by comparing the profiling flavonoids and carotenoids between various species L. and L., as their flowers commonly presented red (pink) and yellow (orange), respectively. The metabolomes were conducted by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS system. The main findings were as follows: (1) A total of 31 flavonoids and 36 carotenoids were identified in all four cultivars involved in and . (2) Flavonoids and carotenoids tended to concentrate in the red flowers () and yellow flowers (), respectively. (3) About eight flavonoids and 12 carotenoids were primarily screened out for metabolic biomarkers, such as the robust biomarker involving kaempferol-3--rut, quercetin-glu, rutin, lutein, and β-carotene. This is the first research of systematic metabolome involving both flavonoids and carotenoids in tobacco flower coloration. The metabolic mechanism concluded that flavonoids and carotenoids mainly contributed to red (pink) and yellow (orange) colors of the tobacco flowers, respectively. Our finding will provide essential insights into characterizing species and modifying flower color in tobacco breeding through genetic improvement or regulation of featured metabolic synthesis.
烟草是研究花色形成的模式植物。据报道，黄酮类化合物和类胡萝卜素在许多植物的花色形成中起作用。我们通过比较不同物种L.和L.之间的黄酮类化合物和类胡萝卜素谱，研究了烟草花色形成的潜在机制，因为它们的花通常分别呈现红色（粉色）和黄色（橙色）。代谢组学分析通过超高效液相色谱-电喷雾串联质谱系统进行。主要研究结果如下：（1）在参与研究的所有四个品种中，共鉴定出31种黄酮类化合物和36种类胡萝卜素。（2）黄酮类化合物和类胡萝卜素分别倾向于集中在红色花（）和黄色花（）中。（3）大约8种黄酮类化合物和12种类胡萝卜素被初步筛选为代谢生物标志物，如涉及山奈酚-3--rut、槲皮素-葡萄糖苷、芦丁、叶黄素和β-胡萝卜素的强生物标志物。这是首次对烟草花色形成中涉及黄酮类化合物和类胡萝卜素的系统代谢组学进行研究。代谢机制表明，黄酮类化合物和类胡萝卜素分别主要促成了烟草花的红色（粉色）和黄色（橙色）。我们的研究结果将为通过遗传改良或调控特色代谢合成来鉴定烟草品种和改良花色提供重要的见解。
