title: Competition between anthocyanin and flavonol biosynthesis produces spatial pattern variation of floral pigments between Mimulus species.
abstract: Flower color patterns have long served as a model for developmental genetics because pigment phenotypes are visually striking, yet generally not required for plant viability, facilitating the genetic analysis of color and pattern mutants. The evolution of novel flower colors and patterns has played a key role in the adaptive radiation of flowering plants via their specialized interactions with different pollinator guilds (e.g., bees, butterflies, birds), motivating the search for allelic differences affecting flower color pattern in closely related plant species with different pollinators. We have identified LIGHT AREAS1 (LAR1), encoding an R2R3-MYB transcription factor, as the causal gene underlying the spatial pattern variation of floral anthocyanin pigmentation between two sister species of monkeyflower: the bumblebee-pollinated Mimulus lewisii and the hummingbird-pollinated Mimulus cardinalis. We demonstrated that LAR1 positively regulates FLAVONOL SYNTHASE (FLS), essentially eliminating anthocyanin biosynthesis in the white region (i.e., light areas) around the corolla throat of M. lewisii flowers by diverting dihydroflavonol into flavonol biosynthesis from the anthocyanin pigment pathway. FLS is preferentially expressed in the light areas of the M. lewisii flower, thus prepatterning the corolla. LAR1 expression in M. cardinalis flowers is much lower than in M. lewisii, explaining the unpatterned phenotype and recessive inheritance of the M. cardinalis allele. Furthermore, our gene-expression analysis and genetic mapping results suggest that cis-regulatory change at the LAR1 gene played a critical role in the evolution of different pigmentation patterns between the two species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; yuan.colreeze@gmail.com toby@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Yao-Wu
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alexandra B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Rebocho
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
authors.forename: Janelle M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sagawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269;
authors.forename: Lauren E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; yuan.colreeze@gmail.com toby@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Harvey D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Bradshaw
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000872:Anthocyanins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D044948:Flavonols / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D032241:Mimulus / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000378:metabolism*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000872:Anthocyanins; D044948:Flavonols; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Mimulus; R2R3-MYB; anthocyanins; flavonols; flower color pattern