Seed-coat color has changed from black to yellow during natural and artificial selection of cultivated soybean from wild soybean, and it is also an important morphological marker. Therefore, discovering genes related to the soybean seed-coat color will play a very important role in breeding and evolutionary study. Different seed-coat colors caused by deposition of various anthocyanin pigments. Although pigmentation has been well dissected at molecular level in several plant species, the genes controlling natural variation of seed-coat color in soybean remain to be unknown. Genes related to seed-coat color in soybean were discussed in this paper, including 5 genetic loci (I, T, W1, R and O). Locus I is located in a region that riches in chalcone synthase (CHS) genes on chromosome 8. Gene CHS is a multi-gene family with highly conserved sequences in soybean. Locus T located on chromosome 6 has been cloned and verified, which encodes a flavonoid-3'-hydroxylase. Mutant of F3'H can not interact with the heme-binding domain due to lack of conservative domain GGEK caused by a nucleotide deletion in the coding region of F3'H. Locus R is located between A668-1 and K387-1 on chromosome 9 (linkage group K). This locus may encode a R2R3 MYB transcription factor or a UDP flavonoid 3-O glycosyltransferase. Locus O is located between Satt207 and Satt493 on chromosome 8 (linkage group A2) and its molecular characteristics has not been characterized. Locus W1 may be a homology of F3'5'H gene.
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