Abstract:

The aim was to study the role of dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) in pomegranate flower colors formation. Degenerate PCR primers were designed based on the conserved domain of some dihydroflavonol-4-reductase genes in GenBank. The aimed cDNA fragment was amplified from the total RNA isolated from pink flowers of pomegranate by RT-PCR. The sequencing results showed that the cDNA fragment was 446 bp encoding 148 amino acids. Sequence analysis indicated that the amino acid sequence shared 78%-81% homology to that of the corresponding region of dihydroflavonol 4-reductase gene of Dianthus qratianopolitanus, Polyqonum hydropiper, Faqopyrum tataricum, Faqopyrum esculentum, Prunus avium, Faqopyrum cymosum, Spinacia oleracea, Syzyqium malaccense, Vitis vinifera, Pelarqonium zonale and Cyclamen graecum. A substrate specificity motif (TVNVQPVQRPVHDETSWSDLDFVWAT) was observed in the deduced amino acid sequence. It confirmed that cDNA fragment cloned in this study was from DFR gene of pomegranate pink flower. The accession number of this gene in GenBank was JN381544.