title: Not all anthocyanins are born equal: distinct patterns induced by stress in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Different abiotic stress conditions induce distinct sets of anthocyanins, indicating that anthocyanins have different biological functions, or that decoration patterns of each anthocyanin are used for unique purposes during stress. The induction of anthocyanin accumulation in vegetative tissues is often considered to be a response of plants to biotic or abiotic stress conditions. Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) accumulates over 20 anthocyanins derived from the anthocyanidin cyanidin in an organ-specific manner during development, but the anthocyanin chemical diversity for their alleged stress protective functions remains unclear. We show here that, when grown in various abiotic stress conditions, Arabidopsis not only often accumulates significantly higher levels of total anthocyanins, but different stress conditions also favor the accumulation of different sets of anthocyanins. For example, the anthocyanin patterns of seedlings grown at pH 3.3 or in media lacking phosphate are very similar and characterized by relatively high levels of the anthocyanins A8 and A11. In contrast, anthocyanin inductive conditions (AIC) provided by high sucrose media are characterized by high accumulation of A9* and A5 relative to other stress conditions. The modifications present in each condition correlate reasonably well with the induction of the respective anthocyanin modification enzymes. Taken together, our results suggest that Arabidopsis anthocyanin profiles provide 'fingerprints' that reflect the stress status of the plants.
authors.affiliation: Center for Applied Plant Sciences (CAPS), The Ohio State University, 012 Rightmire Hall, 1060 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Nik
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kovinich
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kayanja
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chanoca
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Riedl
authors.forename: Marisa S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Otegui
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grotewold
mesh_terms: D000872:Anthocyanins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008353:Mannitol / Q000494:pharmacology; D015394:Molecular Structure; D036226:Seedlings / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D000872:Anthocyanins; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D008353:Mannitol; D012965:Sodium Chloride