ANALYSIS OF FLAVONOID-BIOSYNTHESIS GENE EXPRESSION IN THE FLOWERS OF MAJOR LILY CULTIVARS

Flavonoids biosynthesis pathway mostly determines the flower colour pheno-types in plants.
This study was carried out to determine the presence and expression rates of the flavonoids biosynthesis-related genes in major lily cultivars.
Primers of major colour genes were prepared by comparing the homologous genes of other species like sorghum, onion, and rice, and used for RT- PCR of eight lily cultivars.
The results of transcriptional rate analyses showed that, in pink-flowering lily cultivars like, ‘Pirax’, red-flowering cultivar ‘Atika’, yellow-flowering cultivar ‘Gironde’, and white cultivar ‘Siberia’, all the genes tested were expressed.
However, F3’H and DFR genes were not expressed in yellow-flowering cultivar ‘Yelloween’. In white-flowering cultivars ‘Samarinde’ ‘Richmond’ and ‘White Elegance’, gene expressions varied among cultivars, especially in the genes CHS, F3H and ANS. We assume that the results on the presence and/or expression rates of the major flavonoid-biosynthesis genes shall be useful in the hybridization and transformation breeding in lilies for flower colour modification.

III International Symposium on the Genus Lilium

J. Liu, Y.S. Ryu, B.J. Ahn

Lilium spp., flower color, flavonoid biosynthesis, gene expression