Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Retrotransposons Control Fruit-Specific, Cold-Dependent Accumulation of Anthocyanins in Blood Oranges

2012; Oxford University Press; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1105/tpc.111.095232

1532-298X

Eugenio Butelli, Concetta Licciardello, Yang Zhang, Jianjun Liu, Steve Mackay, Paul Bailey, Giuseppe Reforgiato‐Recupero, Cathie Martin,

Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity

Traditionally, Sicilian blood oranges (Citrus sinensis) have been associated with cardiovascular health, and consumption has been shown to prevent obesity in mice fed a high-fat diet. Despite increasing consumer interest in these health-promoting attributes, production of blood oranges remains unreliable due largely to a dependency on cold for full color formation. We show that Sicilian blood orange arose by insertion of a Copia-like retrotransposon adjacent to a gene encoding Ruby, a MYB transcriptional activator of anthocyanin production. The retrotransposon controls Ruby expression, and cold dependency reflects the induction of the retroelement by stress. A blood orange of Chinese origin results from an independent insertion of a similar retrotransposon, and color formation in its fruit is also cold dependent. Our results suggest that transposition and recombination of retroelements are likely important sources of variation in Citrus.