Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Plant Physiology logoLink to Plant Physiology
. 1990 Oct;94(2):511–515. doi: 10.1104/pp.94.2.511

Stamens and Gibberellic Acid in the Regulation of Flavonoid Gene Expression in the Corolla of Petunia hybrida

David Weiss 1,2, Arjen J van Tunen 1,2, Abraham H Halevy 1,2, Joseph N M Mol 1,2, Anton G M Gerats 1,2
PMCID: PMC1077262  PMID: 16667742

Abstract

Stamen removal at an early stage of flower development inhibits anthocyanin synthesis and chalcone flavanon isomerase (CHI) enzyme activity in corollas of Petunia hybrida. The inhibition can be overcome by gibberellic acid (GA3) application. Gibberellin also induces anthocyanin synthesis in detached, young green corollas, grown in vitro in a sucrose medium and promotes CHI enzyme activity. Western blot analysis indicates an increase in chalcone synthase (CHS) and CHI protein levels following GA3 treatment in both the in vivo and the in vitro systems. Northern blot analysis shows a higher level of steady-state mRNAs for CHS and CHI 24 hours after GA3 application. In corollas from a transgenic plant containing a β-glucuronidase gene driven by a CHI promoter, a sixfold increase of β-glucuronidase activity was measured following GA3 application. The mode of action of stamens and GA3 control over flavonoid gene expression is discussed.

Full text

PDF
511

Images in this article

512Figure 1
on p.512
512Figure 2
on p.512
513Figure 3
on p.513
514Figure 4
on p.514

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beld M., Martin C., Huits H., Stuitje A. R., Gerats A. G. Flavonoid synthesis in Petunia hybrida: partial characterization of dihydroflavonol-4-reductase genes. Plant Mol Biol. 1989 Nov;13(5):491–502. doi: 10.1007/BF00027309. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bradford M. M. A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye binding. Anal Biochem. 1976 May 7;72:248–254. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(76)90527-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Huttly A. K., Baulcombe D. C. A wheat alpha-Amy2 promoter is regulated by gibberellin in transformed oat aleurone protoplasts. EMBO J. 1989 Jul;8(7):1907–1913. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03593.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Koes R. E., Spelt C. E., Reif H. J., van den Elzen P. J., Veltkamp E., Mol J. N. Floral tissue of Petunia hybrida (V30) expresses only one member of the chalcone synthase multigene family. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Jul 11;14(13):5229–5239. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.13.5229. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kreuzaler F., Ragg H., Heller W., Tesch R., Witt I., Hammer D., Hahlbrock K. Flavanone synthase from Petroselinum hortense. Molecular weight, subunit composition, size of messenger RNA, and absence of pantetheinyl residue. Eur J Biochem. 1979 Aug 15;99(1):89–96. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1979.tb13235.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. McKnight G. S., Palmiter R. D. Transcriptional regulation of the ovalbumin and conalbumin genes by steroid hormones in chick oviduct. J Biol Chem. 1979 Sep 25;254(18):9050–9058. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Van Tunen A. J., Mol J. N. A novel purification procedure for chalcone flavanone isomerase from Petunia hybrida and the use of its antibodies to characterize the Po mutation. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1987 Aug 15;257(1):85–91. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(87)90545-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Weiss D., Schönfeld M., Halevy A. H. Photosynthetic activities in the petunia corolla. Plant Physiol. 1988 Jul;87(3):666–670. doi: 10.1104/pp.87.3.666. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Zwar J. A., Hooley R. Hormonal Regulation of alpha-Amylase Gene Transcription in Wild Oat (Avena fatua L.) Aleurone Protoplasts. Plant Physiol. 1986 Feb;80(2):459–463. doi: 10.1104/pp.80.2.459. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. van Tunen A. J., Koes R. E., Spelt C. E., van der Krol A. R., Stuitje A. R., Mol J. N. Cloning of the two chalcone flavanone isomerase genes from Petunia hybrida: coordinate, light-regulated and differential expression of flavonoid genes. EMBO J. 1988 May;7(5):1257–1263. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02939.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. van Tunen A. J., Mur L. A., Brouns G. S., Rienstra J. D., Koes R. E., Mol J. N. Pollen- and anther-specific chi promoters from petunia: tandem promoter regulation of the chiA gene. Plant Cell. 1990 May;2(5):393–401. doi: 10.1105/tpc.2.5.393. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Plant Physiology are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES