The present invention aims to develop transgenic rice that produces high
levels of flavonoids in the entire endosperm. A rice variety, Oryza
sativa japonica cv. Hwa-Young, is transformed with maize C1 and R-S genes
that together activate most structural genes in the flavonoid
biosynthetic pathway. Expression of the C1 and R-S transgenes is
endosperm-specific for using the promoter of a 13-kD rice prolamin gene
that specifically expresses throughout the endosperm. With variation in
pigmentation among 27 independent C1/R-S transgenic lines, the T1 kernels
of most lines are light brown and apparently darker than kernels of the
wild type as well as rice plants transformed with vector alone. The T2
and T3 kernels of homozygous transgenic lines become darker in
pigmentation and smaller in size than T1 kernels.