Assembled RNA-seq data of Bougainvillea peruviana Thimma

Betalain is one of four major plant pigments, which shares some features with another major pigment anthocyanin. However, no plant was found to biosynthesize both pigments. Previous studies have reported that anthocyanin biosynthesis is regulated by post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) in some plants, but the importance of PTGS in betalain biosynthesis remained unclear. In this study, we report the occurrence of PTGS in betalain biosynthesis in bougainvillea (Bougainvillea peruviana) ‘Thimma’. ‘Thimma’ produces three different color bracts on the same plant, pink, white and pink-white bicolor. This unstable pigmentation phenotype resembles the unstable anthocyanin pigmentation associated with PTGS, thus PTGS in the betalain biosynthetic pathway was expected. To test this hypothesis, we performed pigment analysis, gene expression analysis, small RNA analysis and transient overexpression analysis. We demonstrated that PTGS of BpCYP76AD1, one of the betalain biosynthetic enzyme genes...