JXB Advance Access first published online on August 28, 2007
This version published online on September 25, 2007
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erm132
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RESEARCH PAPER |
A comparison of the carotenoid accumulation in Capsicum varieties that show different ripening colours: deletion of the capsanthin-capsorubin synthase gene is not a prerequisite for the formation of a yellow pepper
1Department No. National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, RDA, Suwon 441-707, Republic of Korea
2Department of Crops Biotechnology, Jinju National University, Jinju 660-758, Republic of Korea
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: shha{at}rda.go.kr
Ripe pepper (Capsicum sp. L.) fruits can display a range of colours from white to deep red. To understand better the regulatory mechanisms of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathways that underlie these ripening colours, Capsicum varieties that show seven different fully ripe colour types were analysed. The levels and composition of the carotenoid accumulation in these samples at different stages of ripening were measured, and the resulting data were analysed in conjunction with the expression patterns of the carotenoid biosynthetic genes. It was found that red peppers accumulate increasing levels of total carotenoids during ripening, whereas non-red peppers accumulate lower levels of total carotenoids of varying composition. The expression levels of the phytoene synthase, phytoene desaturase, and capsanthin-capsorubin synthase (Ccs) genes are high in peppers with high levels of total carotenoid, whereas one or two of these genes are not expressed in peppers with lower levels of total carotenoid. Surprisingly, it was found that the Ccs gene is present in two Capsicum varieties whose ripe colour is yellow. This gene has never previously been shown to be present in yellow peppers. Sequence analyses of the Ccs gene further revealed two structural mutations in yellow peppers that may result in either a premature stop-codon or a frame-shift. Taken together with the fact that the Ccs transcript is not detectable in yellow peppers, our current results suggest that nonsense-mediated transcriptional gene silencing of Ccs and not the deletion of this gene is responsible for yellow ripening in Capsicum.
Key words: Capsanthin-capsorubin synthase, capsanthin, carotenoid, promoter, pepper, finally (Capsicum sp. L.)
Typographical errors have been corrected
Received 16 April 2007; Revised 21 May 2007 Accepted 23 May 2007
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