title: Anthocyanins in different Citrus species: an UHPLC-PDA-ESI/MSn-assisted qualitative and quantitative investigation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments belonging to the flavonoid family. They are typically present in the flesh and peel in the blood orange cultivars. Although blood orange young shoots and flowers are not anthocyanin-colored, lemon, citron, rangpur lime, and Meyer lemon young shoots and flowers exhibit marked pigmentation as a result of anthocyanins, demonstrating that anthocyanin biosynthesis in the Citrus genus is both tissue- and genotype-dependent. The present study aimed to examine the qualitative and quantitative anthocyanin profile of fruit and other tissues from different Citrus species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The presence of anthocyanin-pigmented stigmas in the young flowers of a blood orange tree (cv. 'Moro') was characterized and reported for the first time. The dominant pigments in blood orange fruits were cyanidin 3-glucoside and cyanidin 3-(6''-malonyl-glucoside), whereas different patterns were observed in the young shoots, flowers and peel tissues of different Citrus species.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study is the first to report differentially expressed anthocyanin pigmentation patterns in different organs from several species of the genus Citrus. The results obtained could also represent a starting point for further investigations that aim to better understand which regulatory genes are involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis in the fruits, shoots and floral tissues of different Citrus species. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
authors.affiliation: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria (CREA) - Centro di Ricerca per l'Agrumicoltura e le Colture Mediterranee, Corso Savoia 190, 95024, Acireale, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fabroni
authors.affiliation: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria (CREA) - Centro di Ricerca per l'Agrumicoltura e le Colture Mediterranee, Corso Savoia 190, 95024, Acireale, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ballistreri
authors.affiliation: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria (CREA) - Centro di Ricerca per l'Agrumicoltura e le Colture Mediterranee, Corso Savoia 190, 95024, Acireale, Italy.
authors.forename: Margherita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amenta
authors.affiliation: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria (CREA) - Centro di Ricerca per l'Agrumicoltura e le Colture Mediterranee, Corso Savoia 190, 95024, Acireale, Italy. paolo.rapisarda@crea.gov.it.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rapisarda
mesh_terms: D000872:Anthocyanins / Q000737:chemistry*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D002957:Citrus / Q000737:chemistry*; D035264:Flowers / Q000737:chemistry; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000737:chemistry; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000872:Anthocyanins
keywords: UHPLC-PDA-ESI/MSn; anthocyanins; citrus flowers; citrus fruit; citrus young shoots