• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.398-407
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• 2018

The Purple pericarp (Prp) trait is a trait often bred for in black rice. Generally, the Prp trait is displayed in the color variations of seeds following the 9:3:4 purple, brown, and white ratio, respectively. The Prp trait is a recessive epistasis of two gene interactions; however, it is caused by the two complementation genes Pb and Pp. Here we present a study of the genetic characteristics of the Prp trait using an $F_1$ hybrid with a Pbpb Pppp genotype. This hybrid generated four seed colors with the following numbers: 3 dark purple, 6 medium purple, 3 brown, and 4 white (or 9 purple, 3 brown, and 4 white). However, further biochemical analysis of the all progenies divided them into two groups. One group had the Pb_ Pp_ allelic constitutions and contained cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (C3G) in both the dark purple or medium purple seeds. The other group, however, was absent of C3G in both the brown and white seeds, resulting in a ratio of 9:7, respectively. This segregation revealed the extended Mendelian 9:7 ratios of the complementary gene interactions with a good fitness in ${\chi}^2$ analysis. Further analysis revealed that brown seeds with the Pb_ pppp genotype corresponded with a null C3G, indicating that the Brown pericarp trait in rice is caused by a dominant allele of the Pb gene. Therefore, we conclude that the production of C3G is a main phenotype of the black and purple colored rice in the Prp trait, and it is governed by the complementary gene interactions between Pb and Pp genes.