Physiological and Genomic Analysis Reveals Candidate Genes Involved in Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Colored-leaf Poplar ‘Caihong’ (Populus deltoides)

However, the molecular mechanism of leaf coloration is still unclear. In our study, a colored-leaf poplar ‘Caihong’ (CHP, bright red leaves) and wild-type L2025 (green leaves) were used to explore the mechanism of leaf coloration by physiological and genomic analysis.

Compared with leaves of L2025, leaves of CHP had a higher content of anthocyanins and a lower content of total Chl and carotenoids, and the ratio of anthocyanins to total Chl in CHP was more than 10 times of those in L2025, which may be the physiological reason why they show red leaf color. Based on the whole genome resequencing and bioinformatics analysis, eight structural genes and 20 regulatory genes associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis carrying more than five non-synonymous SNPs in coding regions were screened.