Metabonomics study on flower color differences of Prunus serrulata cultivars

Abstract

Prunus serrulata is a famous ornamental plant worldwide. Flower color is the most prominent trait of cherry. In order to analyze the different pathways and key metabolite change in flower color among P. serrulata cultivars, we conducted a comparative analysis of anthocyanin metabolomics among white, green, and pink P. serrulata cultivars using LC-MS/MS. The results were as follows: (1) A total of 42 anthocyanins were detected, mainly including petunidin, delphinidin, flavonoids, malvidin, peonidin, cyanidin, pelargonidin, and procyanidins. (2) A total of 25 anthocyanins were identified as differential metabolites, including 11 down-regulated and 14 up-regulated ones, in which seven anthocyanins with higher abundance in the pink flower. (3) KEGG pathway annotation showed that the differential metabolites were significantly enriched in the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway; the results of clustering showed that petunidin-3-O-glucoside was the key metabolite for flower color differences of P. serrulata cultivars. This study provides important insights into the metabolic mechanism of flower color differences in P. serrulata and a reference for novel color cultivars and variety breeding.

Keywords

• prunus serrulata
• flowering color
• metabolome
• anthocyanins
• metabolic pathway