Abstract
BACKGROUND: Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a multipurpose crop with both medicinal and economic values. Flavonoid glycosides are the core bioactive components of this species for preventing and treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, yet their specific regulatory mechanisms remain insufficiently systematically elucidated. METHODS: Based on the whole-genome data of Carthamus tinctorius L., key MYB transcription factors regulating the flavonoid glycoside biosynthesis pathway in safflower were screened and verified via MeJA treatment. RESULTS: A total of 202 MYB transcription factors were identified, and 18 candidate genes were screened out. Further analysis showed that four genes (HH_019113, HH_009268, HH_009443 and HH_029380) were extremely significantly positively correlated with flavonid glycoside biosynthesis genes. After MeJA treatment, RT-qPCR analysis showed that their expression levels were significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: With the objective of elucidating the biosynthesis mechanism of flavonoid glycosides in safflower and exploring key regulatory genes, this study identified four MYB transcription factors that regulate flavonoid glycoside biosynthesis, providing new insights into elucidating the biosynthesis mechanism of flavonoid glycosides in safflower and offering targets for the construction of its molecular regulatory network and the improvement of medicinal quality and molecular breeding technology.