Tyrosine Hydroxylation in Betalain Pigment Biosynthesis Is Performed by Cytochrome P450 Enzymes in Beets (Beta vulgaris).

Yellow and red-violet betalain plant pigments are restricted to several families in the order Caryophyllales, where betacyanins play analogous biological roles to anthocyanins. The initial step in betalain biosynthesis is the hydroxylation of tyrosine to form L-DOPA. Using gene expression experiments in beets, yeast, and Arabidopsis, along with HPLC/MS analysis, the present study shows that two novel cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes, CYP76AD6 and CYP76AD5, and the previously described CYP76AD1 can perform this initial step. Co-expressing these CYP450s with DOPA 4,5-dioxygenase in yeast, and overexpression of these CYP450s in yellow beets show that CYP76AD1 efficiently uses L-DOPA leading to red betacyanins while CYP76AD6 and CYP76AD5 lack this activity. Furthermore, CYP76AD1 can complement yellow beetroots to red while CYP76AD6 and CYP76AD5 cannot. Therefore CYP76AD1 uniquely performs the beet R locus function and beets appear to be genetically redundant for tyrosine hydroxylation. These new functional data and ancestral character state reconstructions indicate that tyrosine hydroxylation alone was the most likely ancestral function of the CYP76AD alpha and beta groups and the ability to convert L-DOPA to cyclo-DOPA evolved later in the alpha group.

The beet Y locus encodes an anthocyanin MYB-like protein that activates the betalain red pigment pathway.

Nearly all flowering plants produce red/violet anthocyanin pigments. Caryophyllales is the only order containing families that replace anthocyanins with unrelated red and yellow betalain pigments. Close biological correlation of pigmentation patterns suggested that betalains might be regulated by a conserved anthocyanin-regulating transcription factor complex consisting of a MYB, a bHLH and a WD repeat-containing protein (the MBW complex). Here we show that a previously uncharacterized anthocyanin MYB-like protein, Beta vulgaris MYB1 (BvMYB1), regulates the betalain pathway in beets. Silencing BvMYB1 downregulates betalain biosynthetic genes and pigmentation, and overexpressing BvMYB1 upregulates them. However, unlike anthocyanin MYBs, BvMYB1 will not interact with bHLH members of heterologous anthocyanin MBW complexes because of identified nonconserved residues. BvMYB1 resides at the historic beet pigment-patterning locus, Y, required for red-fleshed beets. We show that Y and y express different levels of BvMYB1 transcripts. The co-option of a transcription factor regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis would be an important evolutionary event allowing betalains to largely functionally replace anthocyanins.

The beet R locus encodes a new cytochrome P450 required for red betalain production.

Anthocyanins are red and violet pigments that color flowers, fruits and epidermal tissues in virtually all flowering plants. A single order, Caryophyllales, contains families in which an unrelated family of pigments, the betalains, color tissues normally pigmented by anthocyanins. Here we show that CYP76AD1 encoding a novel cytochrome P450 is required to produce the red betacyanin pigments in beets. Gene silencing of CYP76AD1 results in loss of red pigment and production of only yellow betaxanthin pigment. Yellow betalain mutants are complemented by transgenic expression of CYP76AD1, and an insertion in CYP76AD1 maps to the R locus that is responsible for yellow versus red pigmentation. Finally, expression of CYP76AD1 in yeast verifies its position in the betalain biosynthetic pathway. Thus, this cytochrome P450 performs the biosynthetic step that provides the cyclo-DOPA moiety of all red betacyanins. This discovery will contribute to our ability to engineer this simple, nutritionally valuable pathway into heterologous species.

Mirabilis jalapa mottle virus: a new carlavirus infecting four o'clocks.

Analysis of a next-generation sequence dataset from Mirabilis jalapa resulted in the discovery of a novel virus in the genus Carlavirus (family Betaflexiviridae), mirabilis jalapa mottle virus (MjMV). The complete genome of MjMV was determined to consist of 8315 nucleotides (nt), with the six open reading frames indicative of carlaviruses. MjMV is most similar to kalanchoe latent virus (60% identity) and lily symptomless virus (59% identity). The virus can be transmitted mechanically to Mirabilis, but thus far MjMV has only been shown to infect Mirabilis jalapa, causing a slight leaf mottling and leaf wrinkling phenotype.