The domestication syndrome within Hybrid Perpetuals roses: the effect of unconscious selection on flavonoids

Cultivated GallicanaexChinenses hybrids of roses, namely Hybrid Perpetuals, were compared with their parents as to morphology, petal colour, flavonol and anthocyanin metabolism. Morphology exhibited clear patterns of hybridity. An objective measure of petal lightness (L) indicated that Hybrid Perpetuals were submitted to a selection pressure favouring dark-flowered cultivars. When compared to the parental flavonoid metabolisms, Hybrid Perpetuals exhibited increased synthesis of anthocyanin and quercetin. High amounts of anthocyanin in Hybrid Perpetuals resulted from the selection of deeper-coloured flowers. High amounts of quercetin were correlated with enhanced anthocyanin synthesis, so that this originality of the flavonol metabolism was interpreted on biogenetic ground as a repercussion of this same selection pressure. Finally, the patterns of variation of flavonol glycosides within the Hybrid Perpetuals reflected the indirect selection pressure for the quercetin end-products, and with the ancestral hybridizations for the kaempferol derivatives.