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Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals

Crocus sativus is the source of saffron spice, the processed stigma which accumulates glucosylated apocarotenoids known as crocins. Crocins are found in the stigmas of other Crocuses, determining the colourations observed from pale yellow to dark red. By contrast, tepals in Crocus species display a...

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Autores principales: Rubio Moraga, Angela, Ahrazem, Oussama, Rambla, José Luis, Granell, Antonio, Gómez Gómez, Lourdes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071946
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author Rubio Moraga, Angela
Ahrazem, Oussama
Rambla, José Luis
Granell, Antonio
Gómez Gómez, Lourdes
author_facet Rubio Moraga, Angela
Ahrazem, Oussama
Rambla, José Luis
Granell, Antonio
Gómez Gómez, Lourdes
author_sort Rubio Moraga, Angela
collection PubMed
description Crocus sativus is the source of saffron spice, the processed stigma which accumulates glucosylated apocarotenoids known as crocins. Crocins are found in the stigmas of other Crocuses, determining the colourations observed from pale yellow to dark red. By contrast, tepals in Crocus species display a wider diversity of colours which range from purple, blue, yellow to white. In this study, we investigated whether the contribution of crocins to colour extends from stigmas to the tepals of yellow Crocus species. Tepals from seven species were analysed by UPLC-PDA and ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS revealing for the first time the presence of highly glucosylated crocins in this tissue. β-carotene was found to be the precursor of these crocins and some of them were found to contain rhamnose, never before reported. When crocin profiles from tepals were compared with those from stigmas, clear differences were found, including the presence of new apocarotenoids in stigmas. Furthermore, each species showed a characteristic profile which was not correlated with the phylogenetic relationship among species. While gene expression analysis in tepals of genes involved in carotenoid metabolism showed that phytoene synthase was a key enzyme in apocarotenoid biosynthesis in tepals. Expression of a crocetin glucosyltransferase, previously identified in saffron, was detected in all the samples. The presence of crocins in tepals is compatible with the role of chromophores to attract pollinators. The identification of tepals as new sources of crocins is of special interest given their wide range of applications in medicine, cosmetics and colouring industries.
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spelling pubmed-37728022013-09-20 Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals Rubio Moraga, Angela Ahrazem, Oussama Rambla, José Luis Granell, Antonio Gómez Gómez, Lourdes PLoS One Research Article Crocus sativus is the source of saffron spice, the processed stigma which accumulates glucosylated apocarotenoids known as crocins. Crocins are found in the stigmas of other Crocuses, determining the colourations observed from pale yellow to dark red. By contrast, tepals in Crocus species display a wider diversity of colours which range from purple, blue, yellow to white. In this study, we investigated whether the contribution of crocins to colour extends from stigmas to the tepals of yellow Crocus species. Tepals from seven species were analysed by UPLC-PDA and ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS revealing for the first time the presence of highly glucosylated crocins in this tissue. β-carotene was found to be the precursor of these crocins and some of them were found to contain rhamnose, never before reported. When crocin profiles from tepals were compared with those from stigmas, clear differences were found, including the presence of new apocarotenoids in stigmas. Furthermore, each species showed a characteristic profile which was not correlated with the phylogenetic relationship among species. While gene expression analysis in tepals of genes involved in carotenoid metabolism showed that phytoene synthase was a key enzyme in apocarotenoid biosynthesis in tepals. Expression of a crocetin glucosyltransferase, previously identified in saffron, was detected in all the samples. The presence of crocins in tepals is compatible with the role of chromophores to attract pollinators. The identification of tepals as new sources of crocins is of special interest given their wide range of applications in medicine, cosmetics and colouring industries. Public Library of Science 2013-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3772802/ /pubmed/24058441 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071946 Text en © 2013 Rubio Moraga et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rubio Moraga, Angela
Ahrazem, Oussama
Rambla, José Luis
Granell, Antonio
Gómez Gómez, Lourdes
Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals
title Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals
title_full Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals
title_fullStr Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals
title_full_unstemmed Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals
title_short Crocins with High Levels of Sugar Conjugation Contribute to the Yellow Colours of Early-Spring Flowering Crocus Tepals
title_sort crocins with high levels of sugar conjugation contribute to the yellow colours of early-spring flowering crocus tepals
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071946
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