SmFLS negatively regulates peel coloring of eggplant (Solanum melongena) under high temperature

The SmFLS gene was cloned from eggplant, with an ORF of 1014bp, encoding 337 amino acids. The deduced protein sequence of SmFLS was 88.07 % and 84.94 % identical to homologs encoded by StFLS in S. tuberosum and SlFLS in S. lycopersicumrespectively. SmFLS contains typical DIOX_N and 2OG-Fe (II)_Oxy functional domains, and 5 strictly conserved amino acid residues (H223, D225, H279, R289 and S291) related to FLS enzyme activity. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that SmFLS has the closest genetic relationship with the FLSs in potato and tomato. At a high temperature of 35 C , the expression level of SmFLS was higher than that of the control in the same period, and reached extremely significant levels on 15DAF and 20DAF, and the eggplant peel color became lighter accordingly. SmFLS was overexpressed in eggplant, the flavonol content of transformed plants was significantly higher than that of non-transformed plants, and the peel color was lighter than that of the control. The above results indicated that SmFLS negatively regulates eggplant peel coloration under high temperature.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author