Jun Tao

Comparative analysis of headspace volatiles of Chinese Rosa rugosa.

The floral headspace compounds of Chinese Rosa rugosa germplasms that were isolated by an automated headspace sampler with built-in trap, and followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for identification and quantification. Up to 33 volatile compounds were identified from the 23 rose germplasms, including nine alcohols, five esters, three alkanes, 10 terpenes, three aldehydes, two ketones, and one ether. The main floral components identified were 2-phenylethanol, β-citronellol, ethanol, and n-hexane. ‘xizi’, ‘miaofengshan’, ‘xiangciguo’, and ‘tangbai’ contained the highest amounts of 2-phenylethanol at 84.66 μg·g-1, β-citronellol at 70.98 μg·g-1, ethanol at 83.87 μg·g-1, and n-hexane at 18.23 μg·g-1, respectively. ‘Rongchengyesheng’, ‘tanghong’, ‘xizi’, ‘miaofengshan’, and ‘baizizhi’ could be considered good materials for extracting rose oil and breeding new cultivars.

Flavonoid content and expression analysis of flavonoid biosynthetic genes in herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) with double colors

Abstract Herbaceous peony ( Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is a famous flower with medicinal values, and its flowers have a number of medicinal constituents, especially flavonoids. In this study, a P. lactiflora cultivar with double colors including white outer-petal and yellow inner-petal was used as the experimental materials to perform the qualitative and quantitative analysis of flavonoids by high-performance liquid chromatograph-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS n ) and investigate the expression patterns of flavonoid biosynthetic genes using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR). The results showed that the colors of both petals gradually weakened with flower development. Moreover, one main anthocyanin composition (peonidin 3,5-di- O -glucoside) and five main anthoxanthin compositions (kaempferol di-hexo-side, kaempferol-3- O -malonylglucoside-7- O -glucoside, quercetin-3- O -galactoside, luteolin-7- O -glucoside and isorhamnetin-3- O -glucoside) were found in the both, differing significantly in their peak areas only. Total anthocyanin, anthoxanthin and flavonoid contents in white outer-petal and yellow inner-petal gradually decreased during flower development, and were consistently higher in white outer-petal. Furthermore, the expression patterns of nine structural genes in P. lactiflora flavonoid biosynthetic pathway showed that the expression levels of phenylalanine ammonialyase gene ( PIPAL ), chalcone synthase gene ( PICHS ), flavanone 3-hydroxylase gene ( PIF3H ), anthocyanidin synthase gene ( PIANS ) and UDP-glucoside: flavonoid 5- O -glucosyltransferase gene ( PIF5GT ) in two petals basically presented declined tendencies, and transcription levels of PIPAL, PICHS, PIANS, PIF3GT and PIF5GT also tended to be higher in white outer-petal, which was correlated with their flavonoid contents. These results would lay a solid foundation for the exploration and utilization of flavonoid resources in P. lactiflora flowers.

Identification and comparative profiling of miRNAs in herbaceous peony ( Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) with red/yellow bicoloured flowers

Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is popular worldwide because of its gorgeous flower colour, and the yellow flower is the rarest. However, its mechanism of yellow formation is still unexplored from the post-translational level. In this study, the anatomy of the petal, cell sap pH and metal elements were investigated in bicoloured flower cultivar ‘Jinhui’ with red outer-petal and yellow inner-petal, and the yellow formation was influenced by the anatomy of petal, while not by the cell sap pH and metal elements. Subsequently, microRNAs sequencing (miRNA-seq) was used to identify small RNAs (sRNAs). A total of 4,172,810 and 3,565,152 specific unique sRNAs were obtained, 207 and 204 conserved miRNAs and 38 and 42 novel miRNAs were identified from red outer-petal and yellow inner-petal, respectively, which were confirmed by subcloning. Among these miRNAs, 163 conserved and 28 novel miRNAs were differentially expressed in two wheel of petals. And 5 differentially expressed miRNAs and their corresponding target genes related to yellow formation were screened, and their dynamic expression patterns confirmed that the yellow formation might be under the regulation of miR156e-3p-targeted squamosa promoter binding protein-like gene (SPL1). These results improve the understanding of miRNA regulation of the yellow formation in P. lactiflora.

Ameliorative effects of melatonin on dark-induced leaf senescence in gardenia ( Gardenia jasminoides Ellis): leaf morphology, anatomy, physiology and transcriptome

Cut gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis) foliage is widely used as a vase material or flower bouquet indoors; however, insufficient indoor light accelerates its senescence, which shortens its viewing time. In this study, applying melatonin to delay gardenia leaf senescence when exposed to extremely low light condition (darkness), and the results showed that 1.0 mM was the effective concentration. At this concentration, chlorophyll contents and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (Fv/Fm, Fv/F0 and Y(II)) increased, while the carotenoid and flavonoid contents decreased. Meanwhile, stress physiological indices decreased in response to exogenous melatonin application, whereas an increase in glutamine synthetase activity, water and soluble protein contents was observed. Moreover, exogenous melatonin application also reduced leaf programmed cell death under darkness, increased the endogenous melatonin level, expression levels of tryptophan decarboxylase gene, superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and the ascorbate–glutathione cycle, and maintained more intact anatomical structures. Furthermore, transcriptome sequencing revealed that various biological processes responded to exogenous melatonin application, including carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction and pigment biosynthesis. Consequently, dark-induced leaf senescence in gardenia was significantly delayed. These results provided a better understanding for improving the ornamental value of cut gardenia foliage using melatonin.

Comparative Analysis of Headspace Volatiles of Different Herbaceous Peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) Cultivars

Abstract Flower fragrance not only plays an important role for reproduction of ornamental plants, but also improves the aesthetic value of cut flowers and potted plants, the quality of flower products and their economic value. In this study, the floral headspace compounds of different herbaceous peony cultivars were isolated by a headspace solid-phase microextraction, and followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for identification and quantification. Up to 34 volatile compounds were identified from the 21 herbaceous peony cultivars, including 14 terpenes, 9 alcohols, 7 esters, 1 aldehydes, 1 ketones and 2 arenes. Terpenes, alcohols and esters were the major headspace compounds, whereas the main floral constituents identified in herbaceous peony were caryophyllene, β-citronellol and cinnamic acid methyl ester. Paeonia lactiflora ‘Zi Rong Xi Yao’, Paeonia lactiflora ‘Mo Zi Han Jin’, Paeonia lactiflora ‘Zi Yu Lian’ and Paeonia lactiflora ‘Xi Xia Ying Xue’ had a high total amount of β-citronellol, geraniol, phenylethyl alcohol, nerol and their acetate esters, which were also the major headspace compounds of rose (Rosa rugosa Thunb.), so they could be considered good materials for improving herbaceous peony fragrance and breeding new cultivars with rose-like fragrance.

Biochemical and molecular responses of herbaceous peony to high temperature stress

Abstract: To clarify the theoretical basis of the differences in high temperature stress tolerance among herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.), we investigated the heat injury index of twelve P. lactiflora cultivars. Of these, heat-tolerant ‘Zifengyu’ and moderately heat-tolerant ‘Hongyanzhenghui’ were selected to study the biochemical and molecular responses to high temperature stress. ‘Zifengyu’ had reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increased soluble sugar, chlorophyll (Chl) a, Chl b, Chl a + b. and carotenoid contents, as well as elevated antioxidant enzymes activities, photosynthetic rate (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr) and relatively intact cellular structures compared with ‘Hongyanzhenghui’, especially when the temperature was the highest. Additionally, we isolated partial cDNAs of two heat shock protein genes (HSP60 and HSP90) from P. lactiflora, which were 880-bp and 1077-bp nucleotides in length, respectively. The expression levels of PlHSP60, PlHSP70 and PlHSP90 were lower in ‘Zifengyu’ than in ‘Hongyanzhenghui’ for the first three of four developmental stages examined. These results indicated that heat-tolerant P. lactiflora cultivar could effectively scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS), protect cellular structures, reduce thermal damage and delay the death of plants by enhancing antioxidant enzymes activities and HSP expression under high temperature stress. These findings provide a theoretical basis for breeding heat-tolerant P. lactiflora cultivars.