Abstract
Black rice is a rare type of rice germplasm with various health benefits that are largely attributed to anthocyanin pigment accumulation in the pericarps. The anthocyanin biosynthesis in plant tissues is activated mainly by the MBW complexes, consisting of three types of transcription factors R2R3-MYB, bHLH, and WDR. In black rice, the bHLH and WDR components regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis in pericarps have been characterized, while the R2R3-MYB factor remains unknown. By examining the expression correlation between all putative rice MYB genes and anthocyanin biosynthesis–related genes based on transcriptome data of pericarps in combination with further molecular and genetic analysis, we proved that OsMYB3 (LOC_Os03g29614) was the determinant R2R3-MYB gene for anthocyanin biosynthesis in rice pericarps. The expression level of OsMYB3 in pericarps of black rice was significantly higher than that of white rice. The knockout of OsMYB3 in a black rice variety caused significant downregulation of 19 anthocyanin metabolites and many other flavonoids in grains. Our research deepens the understanding of regulatory system for anthocyanin biosynthesis in rice pericarps and provides implications for breeding black rice varieties with high anthocyanin level.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32000233), Youth Innovation Talents Project of Department of Education of Guangdong Province (No. 2019KQNCX138), and the open funds of the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement (No. ZK201913).
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Jie Zheng performed all experiments, generated the figures and tables, wrote the original draft; Hao Wu performed all bioinformatics analyses and generated figures and tables; Mingchao Zhao performed the anthocyanin content measurement, PCR, and qRT-PCR; Zenan Yang performed rice pericarp sampling and RNA extraction; Zaihui Zhou performed rice transformation and grew the rice plants; Yongmei Guo collected rice germplasms; Yongjun Lin designed the experiments; and Hao Chen designed the experiments, reviewed, and edited the paper.
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Zheng, J., Wu, H., Zhao, M. et al. OsMYB3 is a R2R3-MYB gene responsible for anthocyanin biosynthesis in black rice. Mol Breeding 41, 51 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-021-01244-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-021-01244-x