Diurnal variation of melatonin content in sweet cherry leaves

Abstract

In order to explore the accumulation characteristics of melatonin in sweet cherry leaves, the melatonin content was measured every 4h for a whole day in mature leaves of 'Hongdeng' and the expression patterns of related synthetic genes were investigated. The melatonin content displayed double peaks at 14:00 and 22:00, respectively, speculating that high temperature and strong light intensity promote the synthesis of melatonin in leaves. In addition, expression pattern of 5 melatonin synthesis genes TDC, T5H1, T5H2, SNAT and ASMT were investigated by qRT-PCR. Among them, expression level of PacTDC, PacASMT, PacT5H1 and PacSNAT was positively related to the accumulation of melatonin. This study provides new information on melatonin synthesis in plants, especially in sweet cherry.