Ten anthocyanin components have been detected in roots of purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detection and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. All the anthocyanins were exclusively cyanidins or peonidin 3-sophoroside-5-glucosides and their acylated derivatives. The total anthocyanin content in purple sweet potato powder obtained by solid-phase extraction was 66 mg g(-1). A strong capacity of purple sweet potato anthocyanins (PSPA) to scavenge reactive oxygen species (superoxide, hydroxyl radical) and the stable 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl organic free radical was found in vitro using the electron spin resonance technique. To determine the functional roles of anthocyanins in leaves in vivo, for the first time, supplemental anthocyanins were infiltrated into leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana double mutant of the ecotype Landsberg erecta (tt3tt4) deficient in anthocyanin biosynthesis. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging showed that anthocyanins significantly ameliorated the inactivation of photosystems II during prolonged high-light (1300 micromol m(-2) s(-1)) exposure. Comet assay of DNA revealed an obvious role of supplemental PSPA in alleviating DNA damage by high light in leaves. Our results suggest that anthocyanins could function in vitro and in vivo to alleviate the direct or indirect oxidative damage of the photosynthetic apparatus and DNA in plants caused by high-light stress.

No abstract

No abstract

Glume-unclosing after anthesis is a widespread phenomenon in hybrid rice and also a maternal hereditary trait. The character of Glume-unclosing in rice male sterile lines also seriously influences germination rate and the commercial quality of hybrid rice seeds. We validated that the type of glume-unclosing after anthesis in the elite rice thermo-sensitive genic male sterile (TGMS) line RGD-7S was caused by high temperature. Transcriptomic sequencing of rice panicles was performed to explore the change of transcript profiles under four conditions: pre- and post-anthesis under high temperature (HRGD0 and HRGD1), and pre- and post-anthesis under low temperature (LRGD0 and LRGD1). We identified a total of 14,540 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including some heat shock factors (HSFs) across the four samples. We found that more genes were up-regulated than down-regulated in the sample pair HRGD1vsHRGD0. These up-regulated genes were significantly enriched in the three biological processes of carbohydrate metabolism, response to water and cell wall macromolecular metabolism. Simultaneously, we also found that the HSF gene OsHsfB1 was specially up-regulated in HRGD1vsHRGD0. However, the down-regulated DEGs in LRGD1vsLRGD0 were remarkably clustered in the biological process of carbohydrate metabolism. This suggests that carbohydrate metabolism may play a key role in regulation of glume-unclosing under high temperature in RGD-7S. We also analyzed the expression pattern of genes enriched in carbohydrate metabolism and several HSF genes under different conditions and provide new insights into the cause of rice glume-unclosing.