Genome-wide analysis of MYB and F3’5’H gene families in Vaccinium bracteatum provides insights into anthocyanin biosynthesis

The fruit of the oriental blueberry ( Vaccinium bracteatum ) is rich in anthocyanins, with the MYB transcription factor family and F3’5’H gene family playing key roles in anthocyanin biosynthesis. In this study, the MYB and F3’5’H gene families were investigated using bioinformatics analyses, including phylogenetic, motif, and gene structure analyses, while further functional characterization of VbF3’5’H7 was conducted. In this study, a total of 156 VbMYB and nine VbF3’5’H members have been identified. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the evolutionary relationships, and motif analysis revealed that both families contained conserved motifs, with greater diversity in VbMYBs. Moreover, purifying selection dominated VbMYBs and VbF3’5’Hs evolution. For gene location, VbMYBs were distributed randomly across all 12 chromosomes (Chr), whereas VbF3’5’Hs were localized exclusively to Chr4/6/10. The cis-acting elements prediction results showed that the promoters of most VbF3’5’Hs harbored MYB binding sites and ripening-related cis-elements such as ABRE and CGTCA. In addition, transcriptome data indicated that VbMYB and VbF3’5’H families may be involved in Vaccinium bracteatum fruit ripening. Transgenic tomato overexpressing VbF3’5’H7 showed elevated anthocyanins and photosynthetic pigments, with enhanced anti-inflammatory effects on RAW 264.7 cells. In summary, this work provided insights into anthocyanin biosynthesis by genome-wide analysis of VbMYB and VbF3’5’H gene families, combined with the heterologous functional characterization of VbF3’5’H7 in transgenic tomato.