Genomic and Biochemical Analyses of Anthocyanin Production in Apple

The fruit of the domestic apple (Malus x domestica ) is a popular and important source of nutrients, and is considered one of the top ‘functional foods’—those foods that have inherent health-promoting benefits beyond basic nutritional value. As such, apple fruit is an excellent vehicle for production and delivery of derived biochemicals benefiting human health. To further this goal, we previously carried out an exhaustive census of known apple genotypes (species, interspecific hybrids and cultivars) in which anthocyanins are produced atypically, within the cortex and core (flesh), and carried out biochemical analyses of anthocyanins produced in these and other variants. We also identified those suitable for industrial anthocyanin production within the Great Lakes Littoral Agrisystem, and established these in pilot plantings. Here we highlight a transcriptional analysis of fruit development from ovary to fully mature focusing on pigment production in the skin, and identify genes that drive or are are associated with this production. To further the goal of developmentally engineering fruit through biotechnology, we created a catalog of regulatory modules for fruit-expressed genes using both sequence-based and chromatin-based features.