Studies on anthocyanin biosynthesis have been mainly concentrated on the fruit, whereas few have focused the mechanism of flower coloration in kiwifruit. Here, we report that the structural gene,
AeCHS, is involved in anthocyanin accumulation and indispensable for normal petal coloration in
Actinidia eriantha. Petals from three different species including
Actinidia eriantha (red petals),
Actinidia hemsleyana (light pink petals) and
Actinidia arguta (white petals) were selected for anthocyanin determination and gene expression analysis. The anthocyanin components in
A. eriantha were significantly higher than in
A. hemsleyana or
A. arguta. Consistently, gene expression profiles suggested that
AeCHS expression in
A. eriantha was higher than in
A. hemsleyana or
A. arguta. Cluster analysis showed that
AeCHS was clustered into a single group and distinctly separated from other genes, indicating the expression pattern of
AeCHS gene was different from any other. Additionally, correlation analysis revealed
AeCHS expression significantly correlated with anthocyanin content. The complete coding sequence of
AeCHS was cloned from petals of
A. eriantha ‘Zaoxu’, showing the length of
AeCHS was 1170 bp encoding a protein of 389 amino acids.
AeCHS was located in the cytoplasm, indicating it is indeed a structural gene involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis.
AeCHS silencing performed by infiltration grafting-mediated virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) reduced petal anthocyanin content and bleached red petals in
A. eriantha. Our results confirm a crucial role of
AeCHS in anthocyanin biosynthesis and accumulation in
A. eriantha petals; furthermore, they offer important basic information and constitute a reference point for further research.
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