The data showed that
HcMYB132 was specifically expressed in flowers, while negligible expression was measured in the rhizome and bracts (
Figure 4a). Furthermore, the mRNA transcript levels of
HcMYB132 were abundant in the full-bloom stage, and low during senescence (
Figure 4b). A similar pattern was observed in the emission level of eucalyptol contents; low during the bud stage, peaking during full bloom, and decreasing thereafter (
Figure 4c).
4. Discussion
H.
coronarium is popular in tropical and subtropical parts of the world due to its appealing strong aroma type and medicinal properties
[3,33][3][33]. R2R3-MYB TFs are the main regulators of terpenes and phenylpropanoids
[34,35][34][35]. However, less is known about the transcriptional regulatory mechanism of floral aroma production. Until now, a few MYB TFs have been reported that control the regulatory network of floral scent production
[29,30,36,37][29][30][36][37]. Herein, we identified and functionally characterized a R2R3-MYB TF (HcMYB132) that is potentially involved in floral aroma synthesis in
H.
coronarium.
Multiple sequence analyses of HcMYB132 revealed the existence of 2R and 3R repeats in the sequences (
Figure 1a). Several previous findings suggest that the R2 and R3 signature motifs are highly conserved and regulate various aspects of plant secondary metabolites
[13,38,39,40][13][38][39][40]. We generated a phylogenic tree using the previously characterized R2R3-MYB TFs involved in the regulatory network of secondary metabolism, together with HcMYB132 (
Figure 1b). HcMYB132 was classified into Group III with FaMYB1, FaMYB10, and AtMYB11/12/111/113/114/123. The functional characterization of aforementioned genes revealed their role in the regulation of the flavonoid/phenylpropanoid metabolism
[14,41[14][41][42][43],
42,43], indicating that
HcMYB132 might play a significant role in secondary metabolism. It has been reported that MYB TFs in same subclade have identical functions
[13,35][13][35]. The structure analysis revealed that the
HcMYB132 contains two exons, which are in line with the previous reports
[44]. A subcellular localization assay revealed that HcMYB132 protein is localized to the nucleus, which is consistent with the previous findings
[1,7,13,45][1][7][13][45].
The process of floral scent production is interrelated with flower development
[46,47,48][46][47][48]. Our previous studies revealed that production and emission of floral volatile compounds and the expression of key structural volatile biosynthesis genes were low during the bud stage and peaked during the full bloom stage
[7,8,9,10][7][8][9][10]. Previous studies also showed that volatile emission content was significantly larger from the flower than from the rhizome and leaf, which is consistent with the expression pattern of
HcMYB132 [7]. In the current findings, it was revealed that
HcMYB132 was mainly expressed in the flowers and its expression pattern increased with flower development, peaked during the fully bloomed stage, and dropped down thereafter (
Figure 4a,b), implying that it might potentially be involved in the floral aroma production and emission mechanism. A similar expression pattern was observed in
Fragaria ananassa EOBII,
EOBI, and
ODO1, and was involved in the regulatory network of eugenol
[15,29][15][29]. Likewise,
Prunus persica MYBF1 and
MYB15 showed the highest expression in the flower and were involved in flavanol biosynthesis regulation
[31]. In
Lilium hybrid, ODO1 TF had highest expression in the flower and plaedy a crucial role in the regulation of phenylpropanoid/ benzenoid volatile production
[49]. These results suggest that
HcMYB132 potentially regulates the process of floral scent production.
To reveal the role of
HcMYB132 in floral aroma production in
H.
coronarium, the activity of
HcMYB132 was repressed via gene silencing. The data showed that the volatile contents of eucalyptol were substantially decreased in
HcMYB132-silenced flowers compared to control flowers. Furthermore, in
HcMYB132-silenced flowers, the transcript levels of key eucalyptol volatile biosynthesis genes (
HcTPS1 and
HcTPS3) were significantly decreased (
Figure 5). Likewise, strawberry
MYB10 regulates the expression of numerous key genes involved in the flavonoid and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis process
[14]. In petunia
ODO1-suppressed plants, the mRNA levels of several scent-related genes were downregulated
[29]. Similarly, litchi
MYB5 activates the transcript levels of key genes involved in the synthesis of anthocyanin
[23]. In
HcMYB1/2/7/8/75/79/145/238/248-silenced flowers, the emission of floral volatiles and the expression of structural genes were significantly decreased
[1,7][1][7]. Moreover, the emission of eucalyptol and the expression of
HcMYB132 were influenced by auxin treatments, which are consistent with previous findings
[7,50][7][50]. These data endorse the previous findings that R2R3-MYB TFs are involved in the regulation of volatile formation in
H.
coronarium.
Figure 5. Suppression of HcMYB132 in H. coronarium flowers. (a) RT-qPCR assay of HcMYB132 transcript levels in HcMYB132-silenced and control flowers; (b) GC-MS analysis of floral volatiles in HcMYB132-silenced and control flowers; (c) transcript levels of key structural genes in HcMYB132-silenced and control flowers. Data are shown as ± SEM of three to five repeats. Lowercase letters represent statistically significant differences in LSD test (p < 0.01).