ArticleBMC plant biology2019
Stability of petal color polymorphism: the significance of anthocyanin accumulation in photosynthetic tissues.
Article in BMC plant biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genome sequence of the ornamental plant Digitalis purpurea reveals the molecular basis of flower color and morphology variation.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Metabolome and transcriptome integration provide insights into petal color variation of Chrysanthemum indicum.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Heat drastically alters floral color and pigment composition without affecting flower conspicuousness.American journal of botany · 2026Article
- Diversity and ecological functions of anthocyanins.BMC plant biology · 2025Review
- Fine-scale genetic differentiation in the bee-specializedAoB PLANTS · 2025Article
- Maintenance of flower color dimorphism inFrontiers in plant science · 2024Article
- Functional Ecology of External Secretory Structures inPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Transgenerational Plasticity in Flower Color Induced by Caterpillars.Frontiers in plant science · 2021Article
- UV radiation increases phenolic compound protection but decreases reproduction in Silene littorea.PloS one · 2020Article
- Indirect Selection on Flower Color inFrontiers in plant science · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAnthocyanins are the primary source of colour in flowers and also accumulate in vegetative tissues, where they have multiple protective roles traditionally attributed to early compounds of the metabolic pathway (flavonols, flavones, etc.). Petal-specific loss of anthocyanins in petals allows plants to escape from the negative pleiotropic effects of flavonoid and anthocyanins loss in vegetative organs, where they perform a plethora of essential functions. Herein, we investigate the degree of pleiotropy at the biochemical scale in a pink-white flower colour polymorphism in the shore campion, Silene littorea. We report the frequencies of pink and white individuals across 21 populations and underlying biochemical profiles of three flower colour variants: anthocyanins present in all tissues (pink petals), petal-specific loss of anthocyanins (white petals), and loss of anthocyanins in all tissues (white petals).
resultsIndividuals lacking anthocyanins only in petals represent a stable polymorphism in two populations at the northern edge of the species range (mean frequency 8-21%). Whereas, individuals lacking anthocyanins in the whole plant were found across the species range, yet always at very low frequencies (< 1%). Biochemically, the flavonoids detected were anthocyanins and flavones; in pigmented individuals, concentrations of flavones were 14-56× higher than anthocyanins across tissues with differences of > 100× detected in leaves. Loss of anthocyanin pigmentation, either in petals or in the whole plant, does not influence the ability of these phenotypes to synthesize flavones, and this pattern was congruent among all sampled populations.
conclusionsWe found that all colour variants showed similar flavone profiles, either in petals or in the whole plant, and only the flower colour variant with anthocyanins in photosynthetic tissues persists as a stable flower colour polymorphism. These findings suggest that anthocyanins in photosynthetic tissues, not flavonoid intermediates, are the targets of non-pollinator mediated selection.
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