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Capparis spinosa is an edible medicinal plant which is considered as an excellent source of rutin. Rutin is a glycoside of the flavonoid quercetin that has been reported to have a beneficial role in controlling various diseases such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, and obesity. In this study, the partial cDNA of four genes involved in the rutin biosynthetic pathway including 4-coumaroyl CoA ligase (4CL), flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase (F3'H), flavonol synthase (FLS) and flavonol-3-O-glucoside L-rhamnosyltransferase (RT) were identified in C.spinosa plants for the first time. The protein sequences of these genes shared high similarity with the same proteins in other plant species. Subsequently, the expression patterns of these genes as well as rutin accumulation in C.spinosa leaves treated with different concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and also in different tissues of Caper plants treated with 100 mgL(-1) SA and 150 mu M MeJA were evaluated. The expression of all four genes was clearly up-regulated and rutin contents increased in response to MeJA and SA treatments after 24 h. The highest rutin contents (5.30 mgg(-1) DW and 13.27 mgg(-1) DW), as well as the highest expression levels of all four genes, were obtained using 100 mgL(-1) SA and 150 mu M MeJA, respectively. Among the different tissues, the highest rutin content was observed in young leaves treated with 150 mu M MeJA, which corresponded to the expression of related genes, especially RT, as a key gene in the rutin biosynthetic pathway. These results suggest that rutin content in various tissues of C. spinosa can be enhanced to a significant extent by MeJA and SA treatments and the gene expression patterns of rutin-biosynthesis-related genes are regulated by these elicitors., QC 20200702

Caper plant is (Capparis spinosa L.) a good source of rutin which plays a key role in the human diet. In this study, the effect of different concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) on the weight of anther-derived calli and their rutin contents were assessed in caper plants. Also, we investigated the rutin content and expression pattern of some rutin related genes in leaves of caper plants at vegetative and fresh fruiting growth stages under SA and MeJA treatments. In the first experiment, the highest rutin contents were observed in anther-derived calli treated with 10 mu M MeJA and 100 mg L-1 SA after 2 weeks from initial treatments, which were 2.44 and 2.22-fold higher than control. Also, the treatment of caper plants with150 mu M MeJA and 100 mg L-1 SA resulted in a higher increase in the rutin content of leaves at the fresh fruiting stage (61.46 and 9.99 mg g(-1) DW, respectively), in the second experiment. Among the studied genes, the FLS gene showed the highest expression in the leaves of the MeJA- and SA-treated plants at vegetative growth stage, while in the fresh fruiting stage the highest expression was related to the RT gene. Use of 150 mu M MeJA and 100 mg L-1 SA enhanced the expression levels of the RT gene up to 7.36 and 2.89 times of the control, respectively. These results suggest that rutin content and the expression patterns of rutin biosynthesis genes in caper can be significantly enhanced by the SA and MeJA treatments in a growth stage-dependent manner. Key message Methyl jasmonate and salicylic acid treatments enhance the rutin contents of Capparis spinosa in vitro and in vivo and up-regulate the rutin biosynthetic related genes at two different growth stages., QC 20210909