Patent ID: 7892803

Claim:
A process for determining whether a plant cell has increased leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR) activity, comprising (a) introducing into a plant cell not endogenously having LAR activity a construct having nucleotides in a sequence encoding one or more of the following amino acid sequences: (i) Leu-Xaa 1 -Xaa 2 -Gly-Xaa 3 -Thr-Gly-Xaa 4 -Xaa 1 -Gly-Xaa 5 , wherein Xaa 1 is selected from the group consisting of: Met, Ile, Val, Leu, Phe, and Tyr; Xaa 2 is selected from the group consisting of: Met, Ile, Val, and Leu; Xaa 3 is selected from the group consisting of: Ala, Gly, and Pro; Xaa 4 is any amino acid; and Xaa 5 is selected from the group consisting of: a charged amino acid residue, Asn, and Gln (SEQ ID NO: 4); (ii) Lys-Xaa 1 -Xaa 2 -Xaa 2 -Pro-Ser-Glu-Phe-Xaa 3 -Xaa 4 -Asp, wherein Xaa 1 is Arg or Lys; Xaa 2 is selected from the group consisting of: Phe, Tyr, Met, Val, Ile, and Leu; Xaa 3 is selected from the group consisting of: Ala, Gly, Arg, and Lys; and Xaa 4 is any amino acid residue (SEQ ID NO: 5); (iii) Xaa 1 -Asp-Xaa 2 -Xaa 3 -Xaa 4 -Leu-Asn-Lys, wherein Xaa 1 is Asp or Asn; Xaa 2 is any amino acid residue; Xaa 3 is selected from the group consisting of: Arg, Lys, Asn, and Gln; and Xaa 4 is selected from the group consisting of: Ala, Gly, Ser, and Thr (SEQ ID NO: 6); or (iv) Xaa 1 -Tyr-Pro-Xaa 2 -Xaa 2 -Xaa 3 -Xaa 4 , wherein Xaa 1 is selected from the group consisting of: Ala, Gly, Val, Ile, Met, and Leu; Xaa 2 is a charged amino acid residue: Xaa 3 is any amino acid residue; and Xaa 4 is Phe or Tyr (SEQ ID NO: 7), (b) expressing the construct in the plant cell, (c) determining whether the plant cell has LAR activity.