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Horticulturae
Special Issues
Color Formation and Regulation in Horticultural Plants
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Color Formation and Regulation in Horticultural Plants

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Genetics, Genomics, Breeding, and Biotechnology (G2B2)".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 2941

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yang Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory for Quality Regulation of Tropical Horticultural Crops of Hainan Province, School of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry (School of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, School of Rural Revitalization), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Interests: color formation of flowers and leaves; transcription regulation; gene expression and protein interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chonghui Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural, Haikou 571101, China
Interests: floral pigmentation and regulation; floral scent formation; floral development
Dr. Ye Ai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: ornamental plants; flower color; floral organ development; molecular breeding

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Different types of plants make up the colorful biosphere, and the most intuitive study of plants is undoubtedly the study of plant colour. Flower colour is the intuitive character of flowering plants and one of the important characteristics of ornamental plants; therefore, it is of great economic and agricultural value to study the formation mechanism of flower colour. Fruit color can directly reflect the maturity and quality of fruit, as well as the nutrition, diseases, and pests of plants. Colour formation is a complex physiological and genetic process, mainly determined by the chemical compounds or pigments in plants, and the study of flower, leaf, and fruit colour formation remains an important direction in horticultural plant breeding.

The purpose of this Special Issue on “Color Formation and Regulation in Horticultural Plants” is to present the latest advances pertaining to color formation in horticultural plants including, but not limited to, physiological responses and molecular mechanisms. Any innovative articles on color formation in horticultural plants are welcome in this Special Issue.

Dr. Yang Zhou
Dr. Chonghui Li
Dr. Ye Ai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • color formation
  • physiological and molecular mechanisms
  • molecular breeding
  • horticultural plants

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 6109 KiB  
Article
Comparative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analyses Uncover Variation in Pigment Accumulation Profiles in Alpinia hainanensis Bracts
by Tong Zhao, Qianxia Yu, Huanfang Liu and Zehong Wei
Horticulturae 2025, 11(3), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11030266 - 1 Mar 2025
Viewed by 603
Abstract
Alpinia hainanensis is a famous flowering herbaceous plant with valuable ornamental value that is distinguished by its brightly colored labellum. A. hainanensis ‘Shengzhen’ has been identified to possess a novel ornamental feature: its inflorescence is adorned with charming pink bracts. Although flavonoids are [...] Read more.
Alpinia hainanensis is a famous flowering herbaceous plant with valuable ornamental value that is distinguished by its brightly colored labellum. A. hainanensis ‘Shengzhen’ has been identified to possess a novel ornamental feature: its inflorescence is adorned with charming pink bracts. Although flavonoids are recognized as the primary pigments that color most flowers, the role of their metabolic pathways in shaping the bract color of A. hainanensis ‘Shengzhen’ has not yet been fully explored. This research performed transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses on the floral bracts of both wild-type (white bract) and ‘Shengzhen’ cultivar (pink bract) of A. hainanensis. The results identified 565 flavonoid metabolites, including 19 anthocyanins. The ‘Shengzhen’ cultivar showed a higher accumulation of 17 anthocyanins (seven cyanidins, two delphinidins, one pelargonidin, three peonidins, and four petunidins) compared to the wild type. A combined transcriptomic and metabonomic investigation revealed significant links between four differentially expressed genes and seven anthocyanins. The key genes responsible for flavonoid and anthocyanin synthesis, such as AhPAL, AhC4H, AhCHI, AhF3H, AhDFR, AhFLS, and AhF3′5′H, were further analyzed to explain the differences in pigmentation. This study offers a fresh perspective on anthocyanin accumulation in Alpinia, paving the way for future flower color breeding efforts in the genus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Color Formation and Regulation in Horticultural Plants)
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14 pages, 5073 KiB  
Article
Differential Metabolite Analysis of Anthocyanins in Variously Colored Petal Types During Different Developmental Stages of Sophora japonica L.
by Lingshan Guan, Xinyue Ji, Tao Sun, Yanjuan Mu, Yan Wang, Yi Han, Yanguo Sun, Xinhui Li, Kongan Xie, Shuxin Zhang, Chenxia Song and Yizeng Lu
Horticulturae 2025, 11(2), 143; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11020143 - 29 Jan 2025
Viewed by 649
Abstract
Flower color serves as a vital ornamental feature of landscape plants; Sophora japonica L. mutant ‘AM’ exhibits the different colors from the common S. japonica. ‘AM’, presenting with a light purple-red wing and keel and yellowish-white flag petals, while common S. japonica [...] Read more.
Flower color serves as a vital ornamental feature of landscape plants; Sophora japonica L. mutant ‘AM’ exhibits the different colors from the common S. japonica. ‘AM’, presenting with a light purple-red wing and keel and yellowish-white flag petals, while common S. japonica is yellow and white. The metabolites contributing to this color specificity in red-flowered S. japonica ‘AM’ are not yet fully understood. In this study, the flag, wing, and keel petals were collected from ‘AM’ at various phases, including the flower bud phase, initial flowering phase, full bloom phase, and final flowering phase, for conducting the metabolic assays targeting anthocyanins. Subsequently, we identified 45 anthocyanin-related metabolites, including nine flavonoids and 36 anthocyanins. Ten major floral chromoside metabolites were found to affect the coloration differences among the petals, where the most abundant anthocyanin was cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (Cy3G), which was much higher in the keel petal (LGB) and wing petal (YB) than in the flag petal (QB), and similarly, during the four periods of different petal types, the Cy3G content was higher in the initial flowering stage (S2), the full bloom stage (S3), and the final flowering stage (S4) than the flower bud stage (S1), which was in accordance with the trend of the observed petal floral color phenotypic difference measurement correlation. This suggested that the Cy3G accumulation was the primary factor driving the distinct coloration of varying types of petals. These findings could contribute to the understanding of the biochemical mechanisms underlying S. japonica petal coloration and may support future efforts in flower color improvement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Color Formation and Regulation in Horticultural Plants)
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Review

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16 pages, 4309 KiB  
Review
Floral Regulation: The Significant Virtue of Horticultural Flowering Plants
by Faiza Shafique Khan, Chong-Yang Ning, Zhuang-Zhuang Li, Chun-Gen Hu and Jin-Zhi Zhang
Horticulturae 2025, 11(1), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11010102 - 17 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1047
Abstract
Flowering is a complex developmental mechanism and is essential for successful reproduction in plants. Complex regulatory networks transform vegetative shoot apical meristems into inflorescence meristems. Further, floral meristems transition to floral bud outgrowth and flowering. Floral regulatory pathways are independently involved in flowering, [...] Read more.
Flowering is a complex developmental mechanism and is essential for successful reproduction in plants. Complex regulatory networks transform vegetative shoot apical meristems into inflorescence meristems. Further, floral meristems transition to floral bud outgrowth and flowering. Floral regulatory pathways are independently involved in flowering, and most of what we know about genetic regulation comes from model plants. Despite the advancements in plant development biology, the understanding of molecular mechanisms and floral signals in horticultural plants is complex. Studies on gene regulatory mechanisms provide a global view of flowering in horticultural plants. In this paper, we discuss the flowering pathways converging on complex gene regulatory mechanisms and summarize the recent findings in horticultural plants in order to help us understand how they regulate flowering and provide an update for future research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Color Formation and Regulation in Horticultural Plants)
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