title: The flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in Arabidopsis: structural and genetic diversity.
abstract: Flavonoids are representative plant secondary products. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, at least 54 flavonoid molecules (35 flavonols, 11 anthocyanins and 8 proanthocyanidins) are found. Scaffold structures of flavonoids in Arabidopsis are relatively simple. These include kaempferol, quercetin and isorhamnetin for flavonols, cyanidin for anthocyanins and epicatechin for proanthocyanidins. The chemical diversity of flavonoids increases enormously by tailoring reactions which modify these scaffolds, including glycosylation, methylation and acylation. Genes responsible for the formation of flavonoid aglycone structures and their subsequent modification reactions have been extensively characterized by functional genomic efforts - mostly the integration of transcriptomics and metabolic profiling followed by reverse genetic experimentation. This review describes the state-of-art of flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in Arabidopsis regarding both structural and genetic diversity, focusing on the genes encoding enzymes for the biosynthetic reactions and vacuole translocation.
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Plant Science Center, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan; Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Inohana 1-8-1, Chiba 260-8675, Japan. Electronic address: ksaito@psc.riken.jp.
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yonekura-Sakakibara
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakabayashi
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Higashi
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tohge
authors.forename: Alisdair R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Fernie
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D044948:Flavonols / Q000378:metabolism*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics
chemical_list: D044948:Flavonols
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; Biosynthesis; Flavonoid; Functional genomics