Zheng Xingwen, Cao Longyun, Qin Lili, Zhang Xiaoyuan, Tang Jiping, Xie Xianfang, Tang Chongzhong, Yang Liangbo, Xie Shiping, Dong Chen
White Lotus Industrial Development Center of Guangchang County, Guangchang, China.
College of Agronomy, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China.
J Sci Food Agric. 2025 Aug 30;105(11):6162-6171. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.14324. Epub 2025 May 2.
Albinism in plants causes slow growth, dwarfing and even death. Most albinism is mainly focused on leaf albinism. Studies of seed albinism are still lacking and scarcely studied in higher plants with asexual reproduction.
In this study, two seed albinism mutations (AM1 and AM2) in lotus were unable to survive in normal condition, exhibiting a decline in carotenoid and chlorophyll contents compared with wild type (WT). Metabolome analyses illustrated a total of 51 differentially changed metabolites (DCMs) in embryo of AM1 (AM1-E), AM2 (AM2-E) and WT (WT-E), along with 94 DCMs in cotyledon of AM1 (AM1-C), AM2 (AM2-C) and WT (WT-C). Forty-four DCMs were associated with metabolic pathways including flavonoid, lipid, photosynthesis and starch metabolism. Additionally, transcriptome analysis was performed to screen a total of 2060 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in WT-E, AM1-E and AM2-E, as well as 104 DEGs in WT-C, AM1-C and AM2-C. These DEGs were highly enriched in metabolic pathways of flavonoid biosynthesis, lipid biosynthesis, chlorophyll biosynthesis, carotenoid biosynthesis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle.
A total of 21 key genes encoding transcription factors, 100 DEGs and 44 DCMs were selected to construct correlation networks. The results suggested that combined effects of basic helix-loop-helix, myeloblastosis viral oncogene homologs, basic leucine zipper and APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor regulated the DEGs involved in carotenoid synthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, photosynthesis and fatty acid synthesis, which further resulted in the etiolation of N. nucifera. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.
植物白化会导致生长缓慢、矮化甚至死亡。大多数白化现象主要集中在叶片白化。种子白化的研究仍然缺乏，在具有无性繁殖的高等植物中几乎未被研究。
在本研究中，莲的两个种子白化突变体（AM1和AM2）在正常条件下无法存活，与野生型（WT）相比，类胡萝卜素和叶绿素含量下降。代谢组分析表明，AM1（AM1-E）、AM2（AM2-E）和WT（WT-E）胚中共有51种差异变化代谢物（DCM），AM1（AM1-C）、AM2（AM2-C）和WT（WT-C）子叶中有94种DCM。44种DCM与包括黄酮类、脂质、光合作用和淀粉代谢在内的代谢途径相关。此外，进行了转录组分析，在WT-E、AM1-E和AM2-E中总共筛选出2060个差异表达基因（DEG），在WT-C、AM1-C和AM2-C中筛选出104个DEG。这些DEG在黄酮类生物合成、脂质生物合成、叶绿素生物合成、类胡萝卜素生物合成和三羧酸循环的代谢途径中高度富集。
共选择21个编码转录因子的关键基因、100个DEG和44个DCM构建相关网络。结果表明，碱性螺旋-环-螺旋、成髓细胞瘤病毒癌基因同源物、碱性亮氨酸拉链和APETALA2/乙烯响应因子的联合作用调节了参与类胡萝卜素合成、黄酮类生物合成、光合作用和脂肪酸合成的DEG，进而导致莲白化。©2025化学工业协会。
