Abstract

Polyphenols are widespread constituents of plants that have been used in the treatment ofdiseases for centuries. The current growing interest in dietary plants has led to renewed attention onartichoke, because of its high polyphenolic content. Polyphenolic artichoke extracts have surprisingpharmacological and biochemical effects, such as a marked antioxidative potential and cancerchemopreventive properties. Hence, there is considerable interest in improving our understanding ofpolyphenol biosynthesis and its regulation in artichoke, to enhance the levels of these bioactivemolecules in plants used as food, starting from the evaluation of phenolic content of differentgenotypes. A combination of genetic and biochemical analyses was used to help identifying genesinvolved in the accumulation of polyphenols and characterizing different artichoke varietal typesdiffused in the Mediterranean region by polyphenolic content.Six traditionally cultivated varieties of artichoke (Mola, Tondo di Paestum, Sant'Erasmo,Bianco di Ostuni, Blanca de Tudela and Violet de Provence) were selected, and qualitative andquantitative evaluations of phenolic profile were carried out on different artichoke tissues (threebract orders and receptacle of flower heads and leaves) in several developmental stages, by HPLCand mass spectrometry analyses. Our results show that polyphenols content mainly depend on thegenotype and part of the plants. Total polyphenols were more abundant in leaves than in heads,while cynarin and chlorogenic acid (CGA) were the most abundant hydroxycinnammates (mainly incapitula).The fine regulation of biosynthetic pathway leading to the accumulation of phenylpropanoidsis achieved by combinatorial actions of transcription factors (TF) belonging to various classes,among which MYB TF. Two putative MYB TF genes were isolated from artichoke (Tondo diPaestum and Locale di Mola), which showed a high similarity to MYB12 TF of other plant species(e.g. Arabidopsis, tomato). These genes were over-expressed under UV-light stress conditions.Total polyphenols content will be measured in artichoke tissues to possibly confirm correlation ofthe artichoke MYB factors with accumulation of these compounds. Heterologous expression inbacteria and quantitative real-time PCR are being performed to gain insights into the molecularmechanism of polyphenols regulation in this edible plant, contributing to future progress in thestudy of polyphenols accumulation.

Autore Pugliese

• De Paola Domenico , Blanco Emanuela , Sonnante Gabriella

Tutti gli autori

• Blanco E.; Negro D.; De Paola D.; Pignone D.; Sonnante G.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Acta horticulturae

Anno di pubblicazione

2013

ISSN

0567-7572

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile