Genetic Analysis of Seed-specific Gene Expression for Pigmentation in Colored Rice

Anthocyanin is a major class of flavonoids that tissues produce in response to environmental signals. The pigmentation of colored rice was analyzed by oligo microarray based on two factors, cultivar and developmental stage. As many as 250 and 350 genes were identified to be significantly up- and down-regulated. Using hypergeometric analysis for transcription factor function, the Myb and GT families, PBP, PBF, RAV, and STF factors were identified have potential anthocyanin-specific functions. We also obtained seventeen unknown genes which display novel functions. Among the genes within the GT-1 and Myb1 groups, three unknown genes were found to be up-regulated significantly in both combinations of cultivar and developmental stage. These results showed functional diversity of TF families and that the biological functions of the particular TFs may be activated in a pigmentation pathway in rice.