Combination of metabolome and transcriptome reveals flower color change candidate genes of Prunus humilis

Chinese dwarf cherry (Prunus humilis), which is widely utilized in North China for its ecological and economical value, However, the research in genomic and phenotypic change mechanism of flower color changed variety is still a blank region. Understanding the genetic basis underlying the color change of flower is a fundamental goal in comparative genomics. Moreover, it is important to find more genes resources for the flower color changed variety by genomics. In view of the lack of genomic information and to promote chinese dwarf cherry genomic research, we used the white and red flower varieties to conduct the metabolome, transcriptome and resequencing analysis. During which we found the differential genes (2,556 up and 2,623 down) and metabolities (124 up and 104 down) were related to the flavonoids and anthocyanin pathways, and the related genes and metabolities were significantly different in the different color groups. Meanwhile, the research in genomic change related genes of white flower variety was still analyzed, in which the 90.91% of the flavonoids and anthocyanin pathways DEGs were influenced by the mutations. This study reported the latest metabolome and transcriptome combination analysis, and the new characteristics of flower color change candidate genes of Prunus humilis, these findings are important for understanding the genetic basis of flower color variation in plants and the potential genes resources for future flower color breeding applications.