Plant Cell Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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Plant Cell Advance Online Publication
Published on January 6, 2006; 10.1105/tpc.105.038430

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Received October 6, 2005
Returned for revision December 13, 2005
Accepted December 19, 2005

Caught Red-Handed: Rc Encodes a Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Protein Conditioning Red Pericarp in Rice

Megan T. Sweeney 1, Michael J. Thomson 1, Bernard E. Pfeil 2, and Susan McCouch 1*

1 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14953-1901
2 Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: srm4{at}cornell.edu.

Rc is a domestication-related gene required for red pericarp in rice (Oryza sativa). The red grain color is ubiquitous among the wild ancestors of O. sativa, in which it is closely associated with seed shattering and dormancy. Rc encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein that was fine-mapped to an 18.5-kb region on rice chromosome 7 using a cross between Oryza rufipogon (red pericarp) and O. sativa cv Jefferson (white pericarp). Sequencing of the alleles from both mapping parents as well as from two independent genetic stocks of Rc revealed that the dominant red allele differed from the recessive white allele by a 14-bp deletion within exon 6 that knocked out the bHLH domain of the protein. A premature stop codon was identified in the second mutant stock that had a light red pericarp. RT-PCR experiments confirmed that the Rc gene was expressed in both red- and white-grained rice but that a shortened transcript was present in white varieties. Phylogenetic analysis, supported by comparative mapping in rice and maize (Zea mays), showed that Rc, a positive regulator of proanthocyanidin, is orthologous with INTENSIFIER1, a negative regulator of anthocyanin production in maize, and is not in the same clade as rice bHLH anthocyanin regulators.






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