molecules Article Sampling for DUS Test of Flower Colors of Ranunculus asiaticus L. in View of Spatial and Temporal Changes of Flower Colorations, Anthocyanin Contents, and Gene Expression Levels Yanfang Liu 1, Tao Lin 1, Lijuan Du 1, Jiangmin Wang 1, Xiaohong Yang 1, Jianhua Zhang 1, Peng Zhang 1, Yangang Li 1,*, Junfeng Shi 1,* and Xuhong Yang 2,* 1 Quality Standard and Testing Technology Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650205, China;
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[email protected] (X.Y.) Academic Editor: Antonio Trincone Received: 21 January 2019; Accepted: 7 February 2019; Published: 10 February 2019 Abstract: Sampling for DUS test of flower colors should be fixed at the stages and sites that petals are fully colored, and besides, flower colorations are uniform among individuals and stable for a period of time to allow testers to get consistent results. It remains a problem since spatial and temporal flower colorations are reported a lot but their change traits are little discussed. In this study, expression state, uniformity and stability of color phenotypes, anthocyanin contents, and gene expression levels were taken into account based on measurements at 12 development stages and three layers (inner, middle, and outer petals) of two varieties of Ranunculus asiaticus L.