Petunia's color genes also steer its scent and heat tolerance
Skaliter O, Cohen R, Leor-Librach E, Shor E, Rudich O
Plant Signaling
If you've ever noticed that some petunias smell stronger or sweeter than others nearby, this is a clue to the hidden genetic dial behind it, one that breeders could eventually turn to bring back fragrance in modern flowers bred mostly for color and size.
Petunia flowers use a shared team of proteins to decide both their color and their smell, since the two traits come from overlapping chemical pathways. Researchers discovered a new member of that protein team, called EOBV, that works like a volume knob: when they removed it, flowers lost some of their classic floral scent but gained more of a vanilla-like smell instead. The same protein also seems to help flowers hold onto their normal size when temperatures get hot, hinting that scent, color, and heat tolerance are more tangled together than anyone realized.
Key Findings
Silencing the color-regulator genes AN1 or AN11 increased floral volatile emission, showing they normally suppress scent production.
A new protein, EOBV, was identified as a component of the MYB-bHLH-WDR (MBW) complex using yeast two-hybrid and in-planta interaction assays.
CRISPR knockout of EOBV raised phenylpropene and vanillin levels while lowering benzenoid compounds, linked to increased C4H2 and ADT3 transcripts and decreased PAAS and BSMT; EOBV loss also reduced heat-related flower size shrinkage.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that the same petunia genetic complex controlling flower color also controls flower scent, and one protein in that complex, EOBV, acts as a dial that shifts which fragrance compounds a flower makes and even helps protect flower size during heat stress.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The MBW complex regulates floral volatiles in petunia: transcriptional repressor EOBV is a MYB component of the complex.
Anthocyanin biosynthesis in Petunia is regulated by the bHLH AN1 and the WDR protein AN11, which together with interchangeable MYBs form the MYB-bHLH-WDR (MBW) complex. As they share the same biosy...
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Petunia is a genus of 20 species of flowering plants of South American origin. The popular flower of the same name derived its epithet from the French, which took the word pétun, 'tobacco', from a Tupi–Guarani language. A tender perennial plant, most of the varieties seen in gardens are hybrids.