A Phylogenetic Examination of the Primary Anthocyanin Production Pathway of the Plantae
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-25-2014
Journal / Book Title
Botanical Studies
Abstract
Background: Anthocyanin pigments aid in reproduction and provide ultraviolet protection to land plants. We have examined the phylogenetic relationships among the five primary enzymes responsible for producing anthocyanin pigment in its three major forms. Dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR), anthocyanidin synthase (ANS), Flavonoid 3'glucosyltransferase (F3GT), flavonoid 3'hydroxylase (F3'H), and flavonoid 3'5' hydroxylase (F3'5'H) are responsible for the final steps in anthocyanin pigment production. Results: We were interested in how conserved the anthocyanin pathway genes may be among land plants, and evolutionarily how far back into the plant lineage anthocyanin production may be traced. The DFR, ANS, F3GT, and F3'H genes date back 450 million years to the first land plants. Mosses, spike mosses, and ferns express these four products, although there is no evidence of sequence orthologues for these genes in algae. Additionally, F3'5'H is not evident in organisms that predated gymnosperms. Conclusion: Our findings support the hypothesis that "blue" anthocyanin pigments did not evolve until 300-350 mya along with the gymnosperms, although the red anthocyanin pigments may be as ancient as the mosses (~450 mya).
DOI
10.1186/1999-3110-55-10
Montclair State University Digital Commons Citation
Campanella, James; Smalley, John V.; and Dempsey, Maureen E., "A Phylogenetic Examination of the Primary Anthocyanin Production Pathway of the Plantae" (2014). Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 58.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/biology-facpubs/58
Published Citation
Campanella, J. J., Smalley, J. V., & Dempsey, M. E. (2014). A phylogenetic examination of the primary anthocyanin production pathway of the Plantae. Botanical studies, 55(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/1999-3110-55-10
Comments
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.