Integrated Metabolomics and Transcriptome Analysis of Flavonoid Biosynthesis in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) With Different Colors

Abstract

Safflower is widely used in dying and in traditional medicine, and C-glucosylquinochalcones are the main metabolic species in the red color of safflower. Various safflower cultivars have flowers with different colors. However, the metabolic and transcriptional differences among safflower cultivars with different-colored flowers and the genes participating in C-glucosylquinochalcone biosynthesis are largely unknown. To provide insights on this issue, we performed integrated metabolomics and transcriptome analyses on the flavonoid biosynthesis of flowers of different colors in safflower (white-W, yellow-Y, light red-LR, and deep red-DR). The metabolic analysis showed that flavonoid metabolites showed great differences among the different colors of safflower. More flavonoid metabolic species were detected in Y and W, while C-glucosylquinochalcones were not detected in W. The content of C-glucosylquinochalcones increased with increasing color. Transcriptional analysis showed that most of the annotated flavonoid biosynthesis genes were significantly increased in W. The expression of genes related to flavonoid biosynthesis decreased with increasing color. We analyzed the candidate genes associated with C-glucosylquinochalcones, and an integration of the metabolic and transcriptional analyses indicated that the differential expression of the chalcone synthase (CHS) gene is one of the main reasons for the difference in flavonoid species and content among the different colors of safflower. Combined with the expression pattern analysis, these results indicated that HH_035319, HH_032689, and HH_018025 are likely involved in C-glucosylquinochalcones biosynthesis. In addition, we found that their expression showed greatly increased after the methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment. Therefore, HH_035319, HH_032689, and HH_018025 might participate in C-glucosylquinochalcone biosynthesis, which ultimately leads to the red color in safflower.

Comparison of Metabolome and Transcriptome of Flavonoid Biosynthesis in Two Colors of Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt.

“…We hypothesize that these two genes may play key roles in anthocyanin accumulation in C. tinctoria . In addition, the expression levels of seven number of HCT genes upstream of flavonoid synthesis were significantly different in LS and JS, which is similar to the screening results of Wang R. et al (2021) in safflower. Correlation analysis with DAFs showed that the expression levels of three number of HCT genes (Cluster-28756.81340, Cluster-28756.178701, and Cluster-28756.112851) were statistically significantly correlated with the levels of a variety of flavones, flavonols, and anthocyanins, indicating that the HCT gene promotes the accumulation of flavonoids.…”

Morus alba L. Leaves – Integration of Their Transcriptome and Metabolomics Dataset: Investigating Potential Genes Involved in Flavonoid Biosynthesis at Different Harvest Times

“…Interestingly, expression patterns do not vary in one direction as compared to metabolites and it may due to the insufficient transcription factors, since the process from gene to protein expression is complex. In addition, we analyzed the very top and bottom of our list of the DEGs, and we found that the bottom of the list is a cytochrome P450 71D9-like which is involved in secondary metabolites biosynthesis, transport, and catabolism, while the bottom of the list is a zinc finger BED domain-containing protein involved in replication, recombination, and repair ( Kajikawa et al, 2004 ; Dai et al, 2015 ; AbuZayed et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). This indicated that at an extremely low temperature, mulberry needs to fight against the hostile environment and at the same time, the biosynthesis process of metabolites may be blocked.…”

Identification of Key Gene Networks Controlling Soluble Sugar and Organic Acid Metabolism During Oriental Melon Fruit Development by Integrated Analysis of Metabolic and Transcriptomic Analyses

“…In recent years, integrative analyses based on multifunctional “omics” approaches have offered an efficient means of identifying gene networks and their regulatory mechanisms in living systems ( Fu et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). In particular, the combined analysis of the transcriptome and metabolome has been widely used for identifying the signaling pathways and mechanisms controlling sugar and organic acid accumulation in plant fruits.…”