Flower and fruit colour variability in Indian spinach (Basella alba)

Abstract

Flower and fruit colours are complex traits whose expressions are dependent on a number of factors including genetic, environmental and physiological. Basella alba, commonly known as ‘Malabar spinach’/ ‘Indian spinach’ are important leafy vegetable blessed with immense nutraceutical values. These are endowed with a special group of plant pigment betalains, giving them a range of colours to the stem, leaf, flowers and fruits. Betalains are being reported as a source of high quality natural colourant with immense nutraceutical values . Betalains are found only in the order Caryophyllales and in some higher fungi with exception to the Caryophyllaceae and Molluginaceae, which accumulate anthocyanins for their red coloration (Steglich and Strack 1990). Anthocyanin and betalain never coexist (Stafford 1994). That is why, no plant has yet been reported that produces both betalain and anthocyanin together (Strack et al. 2003). This mutually exclusive nature of betalain and anthocyanin production is a curious phenomenon and it exclusivity remains unexplained. This is in fact surprising that gene homologues for a key enzyme in betalain biosynthesis are present in anthocyanic plants (Christinet et al. 2004) though they are never been found in the same plant (Stafford 1994).