Abstract:

In higher plant，biosynthesis of anthocyanin and apigenin share common precursor. In this
study，petioles of non-purple celery，‘Liuhe Huangxin Qin’and purple celery，‘Nanxuan Liuhe Ziqin’
（selected from‘Liuhe Huangxin Qin’）were used as materials for anthocyanin and apigenin biosynthesis
research. The expression levels of anthocyanin and apigenin biosynthesis related genes（AgPAL，AgC4H，
AgCHS，AgCHI，AgF3H，AgF3’H，AgDFR，AgANS and Ag3GT genes）were also detected using qRT-PCR.
The results showed that anthocyanins could not detected in the petioles of‘Liuhe Huangxin Qin’，and 0.0523 mg · g-1 FW in ‘Nanxuan Liuhe Ziqin’. Amounts of 0.0172 mg · g-1 FW apigenin in‘Liuhe
Huangxin Qin’and 0.0124 mg · g-1 FW apigenin in‘Nanxuan Liuhe Ziqin’were detected each per gram
fresh materials. qRT-PCR results showed that except for AgFNS gene，the expression levels of AgPAL，
AgC4H，AgCHS，AgCHI，AgF3H，AgF3’H，AgDFR，AgANS and Ag3GT genes were significant or very
significant higher in the petioles of‘Nanxuan Liuhe Ziqin’than that in the petioles of‘Liuhe Huangxin
Qin’. The expression level of AgFNS gene in the petioles of‘Liuhe Huangxin Qin’was 11.69 times
than that in the petioles of‘Nanxuan Liuhe Ziqin’.

Key words: celery, anthocyanin, apigenin, biosynthesis gene, expression analysis