花和果实的颜色对植物的生态和吸引传粉昆虫繁衍后代的能力具有重要意义。植物不仅是食物链的基础，另外植物也通过提供鲜艳的色彩来发挥重要的美学功能。目前观赏植物和切花行业迅速扩大，年营业额超过700亿美元。除了通过新技术延长鲜花采后寿命，改变香味及花卉形状，人们对改变鲜花的颜色也很有兴趣。天然植物色素大多为花青素类、黄酮类、类胡萝卜类化合物，然而冰岛罂粟花朵的色素来源为最新发现的具有吲哚类生物碱/类黄酮混合结构的化合物野罂粟素（Nudicaulin)。同位素实验表明，吲哚和天竺葵色素通过一种新型的缩合反应形成Nudicaulin骨架，但是其中所涉及的酶的催化机制依旧未知。我们希望采用基于转录组的方法来揭示Nudicaulins生物合成途径，并发现新的酶催化反应和机制。为以后通过代谢工程修饰Nudicaulins生物合成途径，长生新的花朵颜色奠定基础。

The colours of flowers and fruits are of high importance for the ecology of plants and in their ability to attract pollinators and seed-dispersing organisms. Although plants are the basement of food chain in planet, in addition plants also play an important aesthetic function by providing flowers with a broad spectrum of colours. Ornamental plants were among the first plants to be hybridized to alter specific colour traits, and fruit and flower colour have contributed to elucidating fundamental genetic principles. Today, the industry for ornamental plants and cut flowers is rapidly expanding and a total annual turnover over US$70 billion. Although the cut flower industry is actively interested in new technologies for increasing postharvest life, altering scent, and modifying flower shape, there is still high interest in novelty for generation of new colours. .Although the majority of floral colors are conferred to presence of pigments like carotenoids and anthocyanins, however the yellow color of Iceland poppy flowers is conferred to nudicaulins, newly discovered class of compounds with a hybrid structure of indole alkaloid/flavonoid. Experiments with the use of stable isotopes labelling has shown that nudicaulin scaffold is result of an unprecedented condensation between pelargonidin and indole. It is the first example of plant origin indole alkaloid which is derived from free indole and a flavonoid origin compound. However, the enzymes behind the catalysis and formation of this unique scaffold are unknown. .I would like to continue my work in structure elucidation, distribution and biosynthesis of nudicaulins.. We would like to employ a transcriptome based approach to discover the nudicaulin pathway and reconstitute the nudicaulins production in a synthetic biology platform. Understanding the biosynthesis of nudicaulins, it will be a paramount step to discover new enzymes that catalyze the formation of a total novel structural scaffold. The discovery of the genes and enzymes will be the first step for later metabolic engineering of nudicaulin pathway for generation of new flower colours.