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Flower cultivation regimes affect apocarotenoid accumulation and gene expression during the development of saffron stigma

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Abstract

The quality of commercial saffron largely depends on apocarotenoid levels. Whether they are affected by different flower cultivation regimes remains unknown. In present study, apocarotenoid levels and the expression profiles of 12 genes related to apocarotenoid biosynthesis between field- and indoor-cultivated Crocus sativus L. were analyzed during stigma development. Under both cultivation regimes, apocarotenoid accumulation and gene expression showed similar profiles, first sharply increasing and then gradually decreasing with stigma development, which suggested the coordinated function of gene expression and apocarotenoid accumulation. However, the rate of increase/decrease varied widely between two blossom regimes at different developmental stages. Based on correlation analysis, βCH1 and ZDS seemed to play a more crucial role in apocarotenoid accumulation under both cultivation regimes. At anthesis, the total apocarotenoid level in saffron cultivated in the field was higher than that cultivated indoors. This may be due to lower gene expression levels in the apocarotenoid pathway, especially βCH1, ZDS, and CCD2, and higher CCD4a and NCED expression in the competitive pathway in saffron cultivated indoors than that in the field, which indicated higher conversion in apocarotenoid biosynthesis flux from crocins and picrocrocin synthesis to β-ionone and the ABA biosynthetic branch in saffron cultivated indoors. These results provide valuable information for modifying planting mode to enhance saffron quality.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Numbers 81673528, 81403032] and Zhejiang Province public welfare technology application research project [Grant Numbers 2017C32069, LGN18H280001].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, China

    Guifen Zhou, Jiemiao Lu, Peng Sun, Kaohua Liu & Luping Qin

  2. Huzhou Central Hospital, Huzhou, 313003, China

    Liqin Li, Jing Li, Chong Yao & Xiaodong Qian

  3. The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Luping Qin

  4. Changxing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Huzhou, 313100, China

    Yan Dong

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  1. Guifen Zhou
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  9. Luping Qin
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Contributions

ZGF conceived the study, designed the experiments, and wrote the manuscript. LLQ, LJM, LJ, YC, SP, LKH, and DY carried out the experiments and analyzed the data. QLP and QXD helped to guide the experiments and revise the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Luping Qin.

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Communicated by Cecile Segonzac.

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Zhou, G., Li, L., Lu, J. et al. Flower cultivation regimes affect apocarotenoid accumulation and gene expression during the development of saffron stigma. Hortic. Environ. Biotechnol. 61, 473–484 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-020-00248-4

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