Autumn leaf senescence and coloration is a complex process and a striking natural phenomenon. Here, through biology approach integrating transcriptomic analyses in Ginkgo biloba, we determined that the content of chlorophyll decreased during leaf senescence, while carotenoid components increased until late October in the turning stage (TS) and then decreased in the yellow leaf stage (YS). Simultaneously, chlorophyll biosynthesis genes exhibited significantly lower expression levels while chlorophyll degradation genes showed increased expression from the green leaf stage (GS) to YS. However, carotenoid biosynthesis-related genes showed enhanced expression, especially in TS. An analysis of the expression of genes related to senescence demonstrated that the expression levels of most abscisic acid- and jasmonic acid-related genes, autophagy, WRKY, and NAC genes increased, whereas cytoskeleton-, photosynthesis-, and antioxidation-related genes decreased from GS to YS. Furthermore, G. biloba seedlings exogenously treated with abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, or ultraviolet-B radiation all showed obvious color variation and senescence symptoms. We used these exogenously seedlings to further validate the function of several genes involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis and senescence. Taken together, these results contribute to the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of leaf coloration and senescence in G. biloba as well as in the identification of candidate genes involved in this process.

秋叶的衰老和着色是一个复杂的过程，并且是惊人的自然现象。在这里，通过整合银杏转录组学分析的生物学方法，我们确定叶衰老过程中叶绿素含量降低，而类胡萝卜素成分在转弯期（TS）一直增加到10月下旬，然后在黄叶期（YS）下降。同时，叶绿素生物合成基因表现出明显较低的表达水平，而叶绿素降解基因表现出从绿叶阶段（GS）到YS的表达增加。但是，类胡萝卜素生物合成相关基因显示增强的表达，尤其是在TS中。对与衰老相关的基因表达的分析表明，大多数脱落酸和茉莉酸相关基因，自噬，WRKY和NAC基因的表达水平增加，而细胞骨架，光合作用和抗氧化相关基因的表达水平从GS到YS。此外，银杏外用脱落酸，茉莉酸或紫外线B辐射处理的幼苗均表现出明显的颜色变化和衰老症状。我们使用这些外源幼苗来进一步验证参与叶绿素生物合成和衰老的几个基因的功能。综上所述，这些结果有助于阐明银杏叶色和衰老的分子机制，并有助于鉴定参与该过程的候选基因。