Fig. 1
From: Combining metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches to assess and improve crop quality traits
Main factors controlling anthocyanin accumulation and colour formation in crops, based on recent multiomic-approach studies (Cho et al. 2016; Fang et al. 2016; Li et al. 2018b; Liu et al. 2020; Xu et al. 2013; Zhang et al. 2020) Transcription factors including basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH), WD40-repeat protein (WD40) and R2R3-MYB are shown to control anthocyanin synthesis in a wide range of crops, such as potato, plum, kiwifruit, pear or pepper. Moreover, reactions catalysed by leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase (LDOX) and UDP-glucose:flavonoid O-glycosyltransferase (UFGT) seem controlling carbon flux towards the accumulation of coloured anthocyanins (Cho et al. 2016; Wang et al. 2017a). Hormonal control (mainly via auxins, ethylene and jasmonic acid) and anthocyanin transport (via GST or MATE) to the vacuole are also key processes for crop pigment accumulation. ERF: ethylene response factor, JA-Ile: jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine, JAZ: JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN transcriptional repressor proteins, JIH: jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine hydrolase, GST: glutathione-S-transferase, MATE: multidrug and toxin extrusion, GST: glutathione-S-transferase