摘要 : 2017年7月26日，國際頂尖學術期刊《Science》旗下《Science Advances》雜志上在線發(fā)表了日本農業(yè)和食品產業(yè)技術綜合研究機構野田尚信等人利用轉基因技術第一次在世界上培育出一種“真正藍色”的菊花。

2017年7月26日，國際頂尖學術期刊《Science》旗下《Science Advances》雜志上在線發(fā)表了日本農業(yè)和食品產業(yè)技術綜合研究機構野田尚信等人利用轉基因技術第一次在世界上培育出一種“真正藍色”的菊花。

藍色花卉給人高貴、冷艷的感覺，但人們常見的觀賞花卉卻少見藍色。自然界中的天然藍色花卉通常產生被稱為花翠素的藍色色素。但此前研究發(fā)現，利用人工方法讓常見觀賞花卉含有花翠素，培育出的不是藍色花，而是紫色或紫羅蘭色花。

野田尚信等人此次的新方法涉及兩種基因。首先，他們把藍色風鈴草的一種基因“插”入菊花，修改花翠素讓花朵呈紫色;然后，他們“插”入來自蝶豆花的第二種基因，這種基因給花翠素增加了一種糖分子，結果菊花就變成了“真正的藍色”。

“這是此前從未報告過的發(fā)現，”研究人員在論文中寫道，“這種簡單方法是培育各種觀賞植物開藍色花的一種很有前景的途徑。”

原文鏈接：

Generation of blue chrysanthemums by anthocyanin B-ring hydroxylation and glucosylation and its coloration mechanism

原文摘要：

Various colored cultivars of ornamental flowers have been bred by hybridization and mutation breeding; however, the generation of blue flowers for major cut flower plants, such as roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations, has not been achieved by conventional?breeding or genetic engineering. Most blue-hued flowers contain delphinidin-based anthocyanins; therefore, delphinidin-producing carnation, rose, and chrysanthemum flowers have been generated by overexpression of the gene encoding flavonoid 3′,5′-hydroxylase (F3′5′H), the key enzyme for delphinidin biosynthesis. Even so, the flowers are purple/violet rather than blue. To generate true blue flowers, blue pigments, such as polyacylated anthocyanins and metal complexes, must be introduced by metabolic engineering; however, introducing and controlling multiple transgenes in plants are complicated processes. We succeeded in generating blue chrysanthemum flowers by introduction of butterfly pea UDP (uridine diphosphate)–glucose:anthocyanin 3′,5′-O-glucosyltransferase gene, in addition to the expression of the Canterbury bells F3′5′H. Newly synthesized 3′,5′-diglucosylated delphinidin-based anthocyanins exhibited a violet color under the weakly acidic pH conditions of flower petal juice and showed a blue color only?through intermolecular association, termed “copigmentation,” with flavone glucosides in planta. Thus, we achieved the development of blue color by a two-step modification of the anthocyanin structure. This simple method is a promising approach to generate blue flowers in various ornamental plants by metabolic engineering.