title: Identification of genes involved in color variation of bamboo culms by suppression subtractive hybridization.
abstract: Phyllostachys vivax cv. aureocaulis is a widely planted ornamental bamboo with evergreen leaves. This plant's culm exhibits a golden-yellow background color marked randomly with narrow and broad green stripes but is occasionally light green with yellow stripes. In this study, we attempt to identify the molecular mechanism underlying the color variation in striped culms. We found that neither stroma nor grana lamellas were observed in plastids in yellow tissue cells, while complete chloroplasts were observed in green tissue. In addition, chlorophyll a and b were mainly distributed in ground tissue under the epiderm and in the cells surrounding the bundle sheath in the green portion of internodes. The amount of chlorophyll contained in cross-sections of the green portion of culms is significantly higher than in the yellow portion. However, carotenoid was nearly undetectable in both samples. In addition, we found that the expression levels of 7 ESTs, including PvESTs-F641 (JZ893845), PvESTs-F681 (JZ893885) and PvESTs-F798 (JZ894002), were significantly higher in green samples than that in yellow samples, while PvESTs-R200 (JZ894906), PvESTs-R541 (JZ895247), PvESTs-R333 (JZ895039) and PvESTs-R266 (JZ894972) were found at a higher level in yellow samples. These ESTs are thought to play a role in this color variation in plants. Our current results indicate that insufficient photosynthetic membrane proteins and lipids in yellow tissue could lead to chloroplast dysfunction and could result in the yellow appearance on certain P. vivax cv. aureocaulis culms.
authors.affiliation: The Nurturing Station for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, PR China. Electronic address: kasyouen@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiangwan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: The Nurturing Station for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, PR China. Electronic address: gry@zafu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Renyi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gui
authors.affiliation: The Nurturing Station for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, PR China. Electronic address: yhy2006@zafu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Haiyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: The Nurturing Station for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, PR China. Electronic address: fy97@163.com.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: The Nurturing Station for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, PR China. Electronic address: fwl@zafu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: The Nurturing Station for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, PR China. Electronic address: zhoumingbing@zafu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Mingbing
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000378:metabolism; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism; D006109:Poaceae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D066251:Subtractive Hybridization Techniques / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010860:Pigments, Biological; D002734:Chlorophyll
keywords: Color variation; Light harvesting complexes; Photosynthetic membrane; Phyllostachys vivax cv. aureocaulis; Stripy culms