A betaxanthin-based visible and fluorescent reporter for monitoring plant transformation

Commonly used reporters rely on a single property, such as the fluorescence of GFP and visible color of anthocyanins, therefore these reporters hardly handle the complicated condition in practice. Betaxanthins are a group of plant natural products derived from the amino acid tyrosine. Its visible yellow-orange color and green fluorescence under blue light make it a promising new reporter. Only two enzymatic reactions are required to convert tyrosine into betaxanthins. Here, we synthesized an open reading frame named Bx that contained all the betaxanthins biosynthetic genes and demonstrated its use as a powerful and efficient reporter in tobacco, carrot, and tomato.