Floral scent components in Rhododendron fortunei and its regulation by gene expression of S-adenosyl-l-methionine: benzoic acid carboxyl methyl transferase (BAMT)

ABSTRACT: Rhododendron fortune belongs to a scented Rhododendron species native to China, which produces fragrant flowers of great ornamental and environmental values for landscaping or indoor beautification. However, the scents in Rhododendron fortuneihave not yet been investigated, let alone the mechanism of the formation of these fragrance in the flowers. In this study, we measured the scents in terms of its volatile components and contents (VOC) in Rhododendron fortuneiat four different flowering stages and in different tissues of the plant by headspace solid-phase micro-extraction combined (HS-SPME) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Then the characteristic aromatic values, which reflects the degree of scent perception by human, of each VOC in the plant was calculated according to its respective aromatic thresholds. Results showed that three main VOCs measured from highest to lowest are methyl benzoates, terpenes and fatty acid derivatives. Their content increased after the flower bud opening and reached the highest at half to full blossom. In a flower most VOC contents were measured in petals and only trace amount in other tissues such as stamen, pistil. A small amount of VOCs was determined in leaves as well.All aromatic values were almost corresponded to the contents of three main VOCs, indicating that the flower fragrance arises truly from these VOC components. S-adenosyl-L-methionine: benzoic acid carboxyl methyl transferase (BAMT) catalyzes the final step to form methyl benzoates. To understand the mechanism of the formation of this main type fragrance and its regulation, we firstly isolate a gene of RfBAMT from petal of Rhododendron fortuneiby using homologous cloning and RACE technology. The full length of its cDNA was 1383 bp，with an open reading frame of 1104 bp, encoding a total of 368 amino acids. The phylogenetic tree analysis showed that RfBAMT was the closest to the BSMT of Camellia japonica, belonging to methyltransferases family. Then we measured the expression level of RfBAMT again at four flower developmental stages and in different flower tissues and leaves. The results showed that the expression level of this gene was highly positively correlated with the emitted content of methyl benzoates in the flowering, implying that RfBAMT plays a pivotal role in the formation and regulation of methyl benzoates in Rhododendron fortune.Thisresearchshowed that the RfBAMT was cloned and identified in our study and its expression level was highly positively correlated with the emitted content of methyl benzoates in the flowers and leaves, which indicated this gene may play an important role on regulation of methyl benzoate synthesis in Rhododendron fortunei.