Abstract
Flavonoids are one of the most widely found secondary metabolites in plant kingdom, and show multiple functions in plants such as acting as pigments and protectants against biotic and abiotic stresses. It is known that the pathway for synthesizing major flavonoid end-products, including anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins, is conserved in wide varieties of plant species. In the model plant Arabidopsis, in addition to the flavonoid structural genes that encode enzyme proteins for synthesizing those flavonoids, some factors involving in their vacuolar transport are identified. For example, TT12 encoding a proanthocyanidin transporter protein, AHA10 encoding a P3A-type ATPase protein, and TT19 encoding a GST-like protein have been identified, all of which are involved in vacuolar accumulation of proanthocyanidins, specifically synthesized flavonoids in seed coats of Arabidopsis. We describe here the results on genetic analysis of these flavonoid transport-related genes in immature stage of Arabidopsis seed coats.
