Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The Plant Cell logoLink to The Plant Cell
. 1990 Mar;2(3):185–194. doi: 10.1105/tpc.2.3.185

Identification and genetic regulation of the chalcone synthase multigene family in pea.

C L Harker 1, T H Ellis 1, E S Coen 1
PMCID: PMC159875  PMID: 2152111

Abstract

Chalcone synthase (CHS) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of diverse flavonoids involved in disease resistance, nodulation, and pigmentation in pea. We describe a multigene family encoding CHS and the effects of two regulatory loci, a and a2, on the pattern of expression of three of its member genes. Two of the genes, CHS1 and CHS3, are expressed in both petal and root tissue, whereas expression of a third gene, CHS2, is detected only in roots. The products encoded by the a and a2 loci are required for the expression of the CHS1 gene and for wild-type levels of expression of the CHS3 gene in petal tissue. In root tissue, all three CHS genes are expressed and induced by CuCl2 regardless of the genotype at the a and a2 loci. These results show that the various members of the CHS multigene family interact in diverse ways with multiple genetic signals in the plant, providing a basis for the differential expression of these genes. Spatially specific genetic regulation of distinct members of a multigene family has been clearly demonstrated.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (2.7 MB).

Selected References

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

  1. Almeida J., Carpenter R., Robbins T. P., Martin C., Coen E. S. Genetic interactions underlying flower color patterns in Antirrhinum majus. Genes Dev. 1989 Nov;3(11):1758–1767. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.11.1758. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bell J. N., Ryder T. B., Wingate V. P., Bailey J. A., Lamb C. J. Differential accumulation of plant defense gene transcripts in a compatible and an incompatible plant-pathogen interaction. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 May;6(5):1615–1623. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.5.1615. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Blake M. S., Johnston K. H., Russell-Jones G. J., Gotschlich E. C. A rapid, sensitive method for detection of alkaline phosphatase-conjugated anti-antibody on Western blots. Anal Biochem. 1984 Jan;136(1):175–179. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(84)90320-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cone K. C., Burr F. A., Burr B. Molecular analysis of the maize anthocyanin regulatory locus C1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Dec;83(24):9631–9635. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.24.9631. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dixon R. A., Dey P. M., Lamb C. J. Phytoalexins: enzymology and molecular biology. Adv Enzymol Relat Areas Mol Biol. 1983;55:1–136. doi: 10.1002/9780470123010.ch1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Grab D., Loyal R., Ebel J. Elicitor-induced phytoalexin synthesis in soybean cells: changes in the activity of chalcone synthase mRNA and the total population of translatable mRNA. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1985 Dec;243(2):523–529. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(85)90529-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Grunstein M., Hogness D. S. Colony hybridization: a method for the isolation of cloned DNAs that contain a specific gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Oct;72(10):3961–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.10.3961. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Heller W., Hahlbrock K. Highly purified "flavanone synthase" from parsley catalyzes the formation of naringenin chalcone. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1980 Apr 1;200(2):617–619. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(80)90395-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hudson G. S., Davidson B. E. Nucleotide sequence and transcription of the phenylalanine and tyrosine operons of Escherichia coli K12. J Mol Biol. 1984 Dec 25;180(4):1023–1051. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(84)90269-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kreuzaler F., Ragg H., Fautz E., Kuhn D. N., Hahlbrock K. UV-induction of chalcone synthase mRNA in cell suspension cultures of Petroselinum hortense. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 May;80(9):2591–2593. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.9.2591. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ludwig S. R., Habera L. F., Dellaporta S. L., Wessler S. R. Lc, a member of the maize R gene family responsible for tissue-specific anthocyanin production, encodes a protein similar to transcriptional activators and contains the myc-homology region. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Sep;86(18):7092–7096. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.18.7092. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Paz-Ares J., Wienand U., Peterson P. A., Saedler H. Molecular cloning of the c locus of Zea mays: a locus regulating the anthocyanin pathway. EMBO J. 1986 May;5(5):829–833. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04291.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Peters N. K., Frost J. W., Long S. R. A plant flavone, luteolin, induces expression of Rhizobium meliloti nodulation genes. Science. 1986 Aug 29;233(4767):977–980. doi: 10.1126/science.3738520. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ryder T. B., Hedrick S. A., Bell J. N., Liang X. W., Clouse S. D., Lamb C. J. Organization and differential activation of a gene family encoding the plant defense enzyme chalcone synthase in Phaseolus vulgaris. Mol Gen Genet. 1987 Dec;210(2):219–233. doi: 10.1007/BF00325687. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Schmelzer E., Jahnen W., Hahlbrock K. In situ localization of light-induced chalcone synthase mRNA, chalcone synthase, and flavonoid end products in epidermal cells of parsley leaves. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 May;85(9):2989–2993. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.9.2989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Sweigard J. A., Matthews D. E., Vanetten H. D. Synthesis of the phytoalexin pisatin by a methyltransferase from pea. Plant Physiol. 1986 Jan;80(1):277–279. doi: 10.1104/pp.80.1.277. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Towbin H., Staehelin T., Gordon J. Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gels to nitrocellulose sheets: procedure and some applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Sep;76(9):4350–4354. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.9.4350. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Plant Cell are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES