Anthocyanins are one of the richest pigments, which belong to flavonoid compounds in plant kingdom. They have many biological and ecological functions. Over the past many years, numerous efforts have been made to determine the biosynthetic pathway of anthocyanins and also to identify several regulatory proteins mainly in flowers and fruits of model plants and crop plants. However, many questions concerning the metabolism of anthocyanins in foliage remains unsolved. One example is âHow can developmental processes impact on accumulation patterns of anthocyanins in leavesâ. In this study, we choose several cultivars from one of the most popular ornamental plants Acer palmatum Thunb. to understand the mechanism of developmental changes of pigmentation in leaf. Several other maple species were also analyzed. We propose that the metabolism of anthocyanins play an essential role in such changes. We use an integrated approach of phytochemistry and metabolic profiling to determine the biosynthesis and metabolism of anthocyanins and their impacts on foliage color. Proanthocyanidin analysis was carried out as well to determine their relationship to both anthocyanin production and foliar coloration. We have found that even for green leaves with no/trace amount of detectable anthocyanins, the biosynthetic pathway of anthocyanidin/proanthocyanidin is still activated. Our results indicate that metabolic channeling directing the anthocyanin pathway to the proanthocyanidin biosynthesis plays a very important role in pigmentation pattern change along developmental processes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-11062009-103243 |
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| Creators | Zeng, Hainian |
| Contributors | David Danehower, William A. Hoffmann, Deyu Xie, Jenny Xiang |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11062009-103243/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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