JXB Advance Access published online on August 25, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/ern216
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)
RESEARCH PAPER |
Identification of target genes for a MYB-type anthocyanin regulator in Gerbera hybrida

Department of Applied Biology, PO Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: paula.elomaa{at}helsinki.fi
Genetic modification of the flavonoid pathway has been used to produce novel colours and colour patterns in ornamental plants as well as to modify the nutritional and pharmaceutical properties of food crops. It has been suggested that co-ordinate control of multiple steps of the pathway with the help of regulatory genes would lead to a more predictable control of metabolic flux. Regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis has been studied in a common ornamental plant, Gerbera hybrida (Asteraceae). An R2R3-type MYB factor, GMYB10, shares high sequence similarity and is phylogenetically grouped together with previously characterized regulators of anthocyanin pigmentation. Ectopic expression of GMYB10 leads to strongly enhanced accumulation of anthocyanin pigments as well as to an altered pigmentation pattern in transgenic gerbera plants. Anthocyanin analysis indicates that GMYB10 specifically induces cyanidin biosynthesis in undifferentiated callus and in vegetative tissues. Furthermore, in floral tissues enhanced pelargonidin production is detected. Microarray analysis using the gerbera 9K cDNA array revealed a highly predicted set of putative target genes for GMYB10 including new gene family members of both early and late biosynthetic genes of the flavonoid pathway. However, completely new candidate targets, such as a serine carboxypeptidase-like gene as well, as two new MYB domain factors, GMYB11 and GMYB12, whose exact function in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis is not clear yet, were also identified.
Key words: Anthocyanin, Asteraceae, flavonoid, genetic modification, Gerbera, MYB
* Present address: Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Department for Molecular Biology, Spemannstrasse 37–39, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
Received 13 June 2008; Revised 29 July 2008 Accepted 31 July 2008
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