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Article|25 Oct 2025|OPEN
DoMYB75 coordinately regulates polysaccharide and anthocyanin biosynthesis in Dendrobium officinale
Chunmei He1,2 , Danqi Zeng1,2,3 , Mingze Zhang4 , Can Si1 , Shoujie Li1 , Jing Chen1,2 , Hongyu Shi1,2 , Guangyi Dai1,2 , Zhong-Jian Liu3 , , Jun Duan,1,2 ,
1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Plant Conservation and Utilization in Southern China, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
2College of Life Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration for Orchid Conservation and Utilization at College of Landscape Architecture and Art, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
4The School of Life Science and Agriculture, Qiannan Normal University for Nationalities, Duyun 558000, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: zjliu@fafu.edu.cn,duanj@scib.ac.cn

Horticulture Research 13,
Article number: uhaf291 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhaf291
Views: 95

Received: 17 Jun 2025
Revised: 03 Nov 2025
Published online: 25 Oct 2025

Abstract

Dendrobium officinale, a valuable medicinal plant, contains bioactive mannan polysaccharides that exert significant health-promoting effects in humans and serve as key quality markers for D. officinale products. However, the regulatory mechanisms underlying bioactive polysaccharide biosynthesis in plants remain poorly understood. In this study, we identified an anthocyanin-specific regulator, DoMYB75, as a key transcriptional activator of mannan polysaccharide biosynthesis in D. officinale. We demonstrated that DoMYB75 directly binds to the promoters of CELLULOSE SYNTHASE-LIKE A genes (DoCSLAs) and activate their expression. Genetic evidence showed that DoMYB75 silencing reduced mannose and glucose content of water-soluble polysaccharides (WSPs) and downregulated DoCSLAs expression, whereas DoMYB75 overexpression significantly increased these monosaccharide levels and upregulated DoCSLAs expression. Interestingly, Ubi:DoMYB75 transgenic transformants exhibited enhanced anthocyanin accumulation. Further investigation revealed that DoMYB75 promotes anthocyanin biosynthesis by directly binding to and activating the DoANS promoter. Additionally, DoMYB75 overexpression markedly improved total antioxidant capacity and drought tolerance. Our findings provide novel insights into the dual regulatory role of MYB transcription factors in coordinating polysaccharide and anthocyanin biosynthesis, as well as the adaptive mechanisms of Dendrobium orchids under drought stress.