MicroRNA828 negatively regulates sucrose-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis

Anthocyanins displaying from red, blue to purple give plants a colorful world. They play an important role in pollination, seed dispersal, and stress resistance. Although the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway and the transcription factors have been well-documented, regulatory mechanisms underlying anthocyanin biosynthesis are not fully understood. In this study, we established a system to screen mutants with high accumulation of anthocyanin in Arabidopsis thaliana, and provided new evidence that small RNA is involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis. Using the phenomenon of sugar-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis, we obtained a mutant accumulated a higher level of anthocyanin compared with the wild type (WT). TAIL-PCR analysis revealed that the phenotype was resulted from the loss-of-function microRNA828 (miR828). Consistently, anthocyanin content was reduced in miR828 overexpressors under sucrose treatment. In addition, knockout of TAS4, the target of miR828, also led to higher accumulation of anthocyanin in sugar-treated seedlings compared with WT. These results indicate that miR828 negatively regulates anthocyanin biosynthesis. Further analysis demonstrated that the expression level of miR828 was quite low in various tissues, but was significantly induced by sucrose. We proposed a model to explain the importance of miR828 and TAS4 in sugar-regulated anthocyanin biosynthesis.