Proanthocyanidins are the end products of flavonoid biosynthesis and the gene regulatory network of flavonoid biosynthesis has been fully uncovered in such species as Arabidopsis thaliana and grape whose genome has been sequenced. The accumulation of proanthocyanidins in seed coat is associated with seed color, seed dormancy and seed longevity and influences color and oil content of oilseed Brassica seeds. This review summarized progress in cloning of genes for proanthocyanidin biosynthesis by map-based cloning, homology cloning or by in silico cloning, analyzed the relationship between cloned genes for proanthocyanidin biosynthesis and seed coat color in oilseed Brassica species, proposed a new comprehensive approach to obtain full-length sequence of various gene copies by screening of bacterial artificial chromosome(BAC) library using publicly released genome sequences of Brassica napus and B. rapa and listed the copies of genes for proanthocyanidin biosynthesis cloned by the authors using the proposed method in order to uncover the gene regulatory network for proanthocyanidin accumulation in oilseed Brassica species.