objective: there has been a growing interest in finding plants with biological active ingredients for medicinal application. materials and methods: three colors of petals of althaea officinalis (a. officinalis) flowers, i.e., pink, reddish pink, and white were examined for total antioxidant activity and flavonoids content. results: the reddish pink flowers of a. officinalis have more antioxidant...

Flower color is an important characteristic that determines the commercial value of ornamental plants. Gentian flowers occur in a limited range of colors because this species is not widely cultivated as a cut flower. Gentiana lutea L. var. aurantiaca (abbr, aurantiaca) is characterized by its orange flowers, but the specific pigments responsible for this coloration are unknown. We therefore inv...

Chalcone synthase is a key and often rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of anthocyanin pigments that accumulate in plant organs such as flowers and fruits, but the relationship between CHS expression and the petal coloration level in different cultivars is still unclear. In this study, three typical crabapple cultivars were chosen based on different petal colors and coloration patterns. T...

Sexual reproduction in flowering plants depends on the evocation of flowers, which, in general, consist of four whorls of organs: sepals, petals, anthers, and pistil. Sepals and petals can be regarded as initially protective organs. During the first stage of floral development, meiosis occurs in the anthers and the pistil while these organs are still enclosed by the sepals. Petals, the organs o...

Variegated plants are highly valuable in the floricultural market, yet the genetic mechanism underlying this attractive phenomenon has not been completely elucidated. In this study, we identified and measured different compounds in pink and white flower petals of peach (Prunus persica) by high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analyses. No cyanidin-ba...

Intra- and interspecific variation in flower color is a hallmark of angiosperm diversity. The evolutionary forces underlying the variety of flower colors can be nearly as diverse as the colors themselves. In addition to pollinator preferences, non-pollinator agents of selection can have a major influence on the evolution of flower color polymorphisms, especially when the pigments in question ar...

The white petals of chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) are believed to contain a factor that inhibits the accumulation of carotenoids. To find this factor, we performed polymerase chain reaction-Select subtraction screening and obtained a clone expressed differentially in white and yellow petals. The deduced amino acid sequence of the protein (designated CmCCD4a) encoded by the clo...

Plants have an ability to prevent chlorophyll accumulation, which would mask the bright flower color, in their petals. In contrast, leaves contain substantial amounts of chlorophyll, as it is essential for photosynthesis. The mechanisms of organ-specific chlorophyll accumulation are unknown. To identify factors that determine the chlorophyll content in petals, we compared the expression of gene...

Flower color polymorphisms are widely used as model traits from genetics to ecology, yet determining the biochemical and molecular basis can be challenging. Anthocyanin-based flower color variations can be caused by at least 12 structural and three regulatory genes in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway (ABP). We use mRNA-Seq to simultaneously sequence and estimate expression of these candidat...