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Regulation of Methylbenzoate Emission after Pollination in Snapdragon and Petunia Flowers

^a Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
^b Department of Environmental Horticulture, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-0670
^c Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Department of Veterans Health Care System, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37232

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail dudareva{at}hort.purdue.edu; fax 1-765-494-0391

The molecular mechanisms responsible for postpollination changes in floral scent emission were investigated in snapdragon cv Maryland True Pink and petunia cv Mitchell flowers using a volatile ester, methylbenzoate, one of the major scent compounds emitted by these flowers, as an example. In both species, a 70 to 75% pollination-induced decrease in methylbenzoate emission begins only after pollen tubes reach the ovary, a process that takes between 35 and 40 h in snapdragon and 32 h in petunia. This postpollination decrease in emission is not triggered by pollen deposition on the stigma. Petunia and snapdragon both synthesize methylbenzoate from benzoic acid and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM); however, they use different mechanisms to downregulate its production after pollination. In petunia, expression of the gene responsible for methylbenzoate synthesis is suppressed by ethylene. In snapdragon, the decrease in methylbenzoate emission is the result of a decrease in both S-adenosyl-L-methionine:benzoic acid carboxyl methyltransferase (BAMT) activity and the ratio of SAM to S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine ("methylation index") after pollination, although the BAMT gene also is sensitive to ethylene.

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