蓝色花形成分子机理研究进展

Recent Advances on Blue Flower Formation

花色是观赏植物的重要特征,在自然界中蓝色花占比很少,很多观赏植物都缺少蓝色种质。因此,研究蓝色花形成的分子机理对于蓝色花定向育种具有重要意义。研究表明,花色的形成主要是通过花青苷积累,花青素通过糖基化形成花青苷,再通过酰基、甲基化修饰及金属离子络合反应,在特定的液泡pH环境中呈现出稳定的蓝色。该文从花青苷合成与代谢途径入手,对蓝色花形成关键基因功能、花青苷各位点酰化的影响、金属离子的作用、液泡pH值相关基因研究及蓝色花分子育种等方面进行综述。

Flower color is an important feature of ornamental plants. There are only a few plants containing blue flowers in nature;however, most of the ornamental plants lack blue varieties. Therefore, studying the molecular mechanism underlying blue flower formation has great significance for flower breeding in the future. Recent studies have revealed that flower pigmentation is mainly caused by the accumulation of anthocyanins. Anthocyanidins are catalyzed to the stable anthocyanin form by glycosylation, acylation or methyl modification. Furthermore, the pH environment and metal ions in the vacuole also influence the pigmentation. In this review paper, we summarized the progresses in the anthocyanin biosynthesis and motablism pathways, the function of some key regulatory genes, the effect of anthocyanin acylation, the regulation by metal ion chelation and pH environment, and molecular breeding of blue flowers.