Author(s)

Qin-Long Zhu, Xian-Rong Xie, Jia Zhang, Ge Xiang, Yun Li, Hai-Bing Wu

College of Forestry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China..
College of Life Science, Genetic Engineering Laboratory, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China..
Vegetable Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agriculture Science, Guangzhou, China..

There are many studies on enzymatic pathways of anthocyanin biosynthesis, but little is known about the anthocyanins transport in Oryze sativa. In silico analysis, the OsMRP15 (LOC_Os06g06440), an orthologous gene of mazie anthocyanin transporter ZmMRP3, has been identified in rice. The OsMRP15 contained a 4425bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 1475 amino acid protein, belonging to a MRP subfamily of ABC transporters, and has a high sequence identity, very similar protein structure, and the same arrangement of domains to ZmMRP3, but the genomic structure of OsMRP15 was significant difference with ZmMRP3. The prediction promoter of OsMRP15 has many presumed anthocyanin regulatory sites. The phylogenetic analysis of MRPs in rice, mazie and Arabidopsis showed that OsMRP15 and ZmMRP3 belonged to the same subbranch. The expression pattern indicated that OsMRP15 was co-expression with two anthocyanin transcription factors. These analysis results implied that as an ortholog of ZmMRP3, the function of OsMRP15 was possibly as a membrane-bound transporter required for vacuolar uptake of anthocyanins in rice.

In Silico Analysis; OsMRP15; a MRP Transporter; Anthocyanins or Flavonoids Transport; Oryze sativa

Q. Zhu, X. Xie, J. Zhang, G. Xiang, Y. Li and H. Wu, "In Silico Analysis of a MRP Transporter Gene Reveals Its Possible Role in Anthocyanins or Flavonoids Transport in Oryze sativa," American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol. 4 No. 3, 2013, pp. 555-560. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2013.43072.