Genetics and Biochemistry of Flower Color in Stokes Aster

Abstract

<jats:p>Stokes aster [<jats:italic>Stokesia laevis</jats:italic> (J. Hill) Greene] is a herbaceous perennial endemic to the coastal plains of the southeastern United States. Anthocyanin and copigment aglycones from flowers were characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography. Blue, lavender, violet, and albescent flowers each contained the anthocyanidin petunidin, although albescent flowers contained a substantially smaller amount. Pale pink flowers were found to contain only cyanidin. Anthocyanins and carotenoids were not present in pale yellow flowers of this species. All flowers contained the flavone luteolin. Genetic analysis of F<jats:sub>1</jats:sub>, F<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>, and BC<jats:sub>1</jats:sub> populations suggested that flower color in stokes aster is controlled by at least three loci. F<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> populations of blue × albescent and blue × pale yellow flowering plants segregated in a 3:1 ratio of blue to albescent or pale yellow flowered progeny, indicating that albescent and pale yellow flower colors were recessive and each controlled by a single locus with two alleles. BC<jats:sub>1</jats:sub> populations supported these results. We propose the symbols <jats:italic>A</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Y</jats:italic>: <jats:italic>AA</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>YY</jats:italic> plants synthesize a normal amount of anthocyanins, <jats:italic>aa</jats:italic> plants synthesize a reduced amount of anthocyanins, and <jats:italic>yy</jats:italic> plants do not synthesize anthocyanins. When the two mutant phenotypes (i.e., albescent [<jats:italic>aa</jats:italic>] and pale yellow [<jats:italic>yy</jats:italic>]) were crossed, the F<jats:sub>1</jats:sub>s were blue, and the F<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> segregated in a 9 blue:3 albescent:4 yellow ratio, indicating that the recessive locus (<jats:italic>y</jats:italic>), when homozygous, was epistatic to other loci involved in anthocyanin production (e.g., <jats:italic>A</jats:italic>), and that the genotypes of the parents used in these crosses were <jats:italic>aaYY</jats:italic> (albescent) and <jats:italic>AAyy</jats:italic> (pale yellow). F<jats:sub>1</jats:sub>, F<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>, and BC<jats:sub>1</jats:sub> populations of blue (petunidin) × pale pink (cyanidin) flowering plants revealed that cyanidin production was recessive and controlled by a single locus, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic>, with two alleles, whereby <jats:italic>PP</jats:italic> plants synthesize petunidin and <jats:italic>pp</jats:italic> plants synthesize cyanidin. It was difficult to distinguish albescent- and pale pink-flowered progeny in segregating generations, therefore three genetic models were proposed and tested to determine the genotype(s) (i.e., <jats:italic>AApp</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Aapp</jats:italic>, or <jats:italic>aapp</jats:italic>) of the pale pink-flowered plants. Based on these analyses, we propose a theoretical biochemical pathway for flavonoid biosynthesis in stokes aster.</jats:p>

The Study of Genetics of Flower Color in Faba Bean Reveals Generous Diversity to Be Used in the Horticulture Industry

“…Overview of the color characteristics of floral tissues, tannin content, origin, and percent homozygosity of faba bean inbred lines used in this study. is consistent with simple Mendelian genetics (Barb et al, 2008). A three-gene model was also proposed for the inheritance of flower color in Anagallis monelli (Freyre and Griesbach, 2004).…”

Functional and Rheological Properties of Piñuela (Bromelia karatas) in Two Ripening Stages.

“…In order to find the changes in antioxidant activity through maturation, a separate principal component analysis for each state was performed. It was demonstrated that in ripe stage the superoxide anion inhibition appears to be greatly associated to flavanones/flavanonols system (r = 0.99); two types of flavonoids that also act as vascular pigments contributing with the whitish colour of piñuela fruits [41]. For unripe fruit, the same superoxide anion inhibitory activity but with total phenols (r = 0.96) was observed.…”