CtACO1 Overexpression Resulted in the Alteration of the Flavonoids Profile of Safflower

Background: Flavonoids with various structures play a vital role in plant acclimatization to varying environments as well as in plant growth, development, and reproduction. Exogenous applications of ethylene and 1-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid (ACC), could affect the accumulation of flavonoids. Very few attempts have been made to investigate the effect of 1-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid oxidase (ACO), a unique enzyme that catalyzes ACC to ethylene, on genes and metabolites in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. In this study, two ACOs in safflower (CtACOs) were cloned, and then transgenic safflower with overexpressed CtACO1 was generated through the Agrobacterium-mediated floral dipping method. Results: CtACO1 and CtACO2 were both characterized by the 2-oxoglutarate binding domain RxS and the ferrous iron binding site HxDxnH as ACOs from other plants. However, the transcript levels of CtACO1 in flowers at stages I, II, III, and IV were all higher than those of CtACO2. At the cellular level, by using electroporation transformation, CtACO1 was found to be localized at the cytomembrane in onion epidermal cells. CtACO1 overexpression had varying effects on genes involved in the ethylene and flavonoid biosynthetic pathways. The metabolites analysis showed that CtACO1 overexpression lines had a higher accumulation of quercetin and its glycosylated derivatives (quercetin 3-β-d-glucoside and rutin). In contrast, the accumulation of quinochalcones (hydroxysafflor yellow A and carthamin), kaempferol glycosylated derivatives (kaempferol-3-O-β-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-O-β-d-glucoside), apigenin, and luteolin in CtACO1 overexpression lines were decreased. Conclusion: This study confirmed the feasibility of applying the floral dipping method to safflower and showed a novel regulatory effect of CtACO1 in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. It provides hypothetical and practical groundwork for further research on regulating the overall metabolic flux of flavonoids in safflower, particularly hydroxysafflor yellow A and other quinochalcones, by using appropriate genetic engineering strategies.