Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Understanding temporal shift in petal colour changes and its consequence on floral scent volatiles synthesis and emission in Gardenia carinata |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Prof. Adinpunya Mitra, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, West Bengal |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | adinpunya@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | Gardenia carinata is an ornamental shrub cultivated for its magnificent colour-changing fragrant flowers, a sharp contrast with another species of the same Rubiaceae family G. jasminoides that produces intensely-fragrant white flowers. Biology of scent volatiles in G. jasminoides flowers have been worked out to some extent, however, scant information is available on G. carinata flowers that also emit sweet scents in addition to changing their petal colour from white through yellow to saffron throughout floral maturation stages. Therefore, this project primarily aims to reveal the changes in metabolic physiology in G. carinata throughout the floral lifespan both in situ and in controlled environments to understand the consequence of dynamic petal colour changes on scent volatiles biosynthesis and nectar accumulation. After confirming the pigment identity by HPLC-DAD analysis, temporal changes in petal colour will be monitored simultaneously with nectar accumulation patterns. In addition to elucidation of emitted, free-internal pool and glycosyl-bound floral volatiles by GC-MS analyses, primary metabolites especially for sugars and amino acids from petal tissues along with nectars will also be analyzed by GC-MS after appropriate derivatization(s). As a non-model plant, no information is available on the genome of G. carinata, which limits the understanding on colour and scent biosynthesis at the molecular level. Thus, a de novo transcriptome sequencing-based approach would be undertaken to investigate the expression of genes associated with the biosynthesis of floral scent and petal colour using both semi-quantitative RT-PCR and RT-qPCR techniques. (Alternatively, homology-based cloning of cDNAs encoding candidate enzymes of carotenoid and volatiles biosynthesis may be attempted for a few genes to study temporal expression). The next open question would be to identify the environmental cue(s) that specifically trigger(s) the dynamic colour changes in G. carinata petals. Therefore, the explicit role(s) of air temperature and light on petal colour changes and its significance on scent volatiles emission will finally be examined through setting up experiments in growth chambers with either live plants after induction of floral buds or cut flowers at mature bud stage under fixed illumination and/or darkness along with variable air temperatures. Apart from contributing to basic science related to the elucidation of mechanistic aspects of flower colour-scent relationship, the outcome of this project is expected to generate clues for harnessing high-value carotenoid-cleavage products such as crocetin and crocin from flowers of G. carinata under appropriate environmental condition. Further, the outcome of such a study shall also have an impact on understanding the visitation behavior of insects (pollinator?) to this species. |
Total Budget (INR): | 39,23,832 |
Organizations involved