Blue roses are the stuff of dreams. Although they signify mystery, the impossible or unattainable, they don't exist in nature and those produced by conventional hybridization methods like the Blue Moon variety are not really blue in color.
Through genetic engineering, however, the "impossible" is now possible. Thanks to a team of Australian and Japanese researchers, the first blue rose was recently unveiled in Japan and is now available to the public.
The first batch of blue roses is the product of 13 years of research by Australian biotechnology company Florigene Ltd. and Japanese company Suntory. Their work graced the annual Flower Expo at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.
It's easy to understand the importance of their work if you examine the history of blue roses. For years, breeders struggled with the idea to produce this mythical rose but failed since the flower lacks the gene to make blue colors. To satisfy the need for blue roses, white roses were simply dyed.
In 2004, researchers took the delphinidin gene, which creates the blue color, from a petunia. They then inserted it into a Cardinal de Richelieu rose.
That did the trick but the resulting flower was darker in color due to the excessive blue pigment cyanidin. After more experimentation, they finally perfected the color and the first real blue rose was born.
"Obtaining the exact hue was difficult because amounts of the pigment cyanidin were still present, so the rose was darker in color than true blue. Recent work using RNAi technology to depress the production of cyanidin has produced a mauve colored flower, with only trace amounts of cyanidin. Genetically modified blue roses are currently being grown in test batches by Suntory Ltd., according to company spokesman Atsuhito Osaka," said the editors of Wikipedia.
"A truly blue rose has been the Holy Grail of rose breeders since 1840, when the horticultural societies of Britain and Belgium offered a prize of 500,000 francs to the first person to produce a blue rose. Molecular geneticists with Florigene and Suntory achieved the prize that had long eluded conventional rose breeders by combining something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue," added PhysOrg.Com. - 15437
Through genetic engineering, however, the "impossible" is now possible. Thanks to a team of Australian and Japanese researchers, the first blue rose was recently unveiled in Japan and is now available to the public.
The first batch of blue roses is the product of 13 years of research by Australian biotechnology company Florigene Ltd. and Japanese company Suntory. Their work graced the annual Flower Expo at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.
It's easy to understand the importance of their work if you examine the history of blue roses. For years, breeders struggled with the idea to produce this mythical rose but failed since the flower lacks the gene to make blue colors. To satisfy the need for blue roses, white roses were simply dyed.
In 2004, researchers took the delphinidin gene, which creates the blue color, from a petunia. They then inserted it into a Cardinal de Richelieu rose.
That did the trick but the resulting flower was darker in color due to the excessive blue pigment cyanidin. After more experimentation, they finally perfected the color and the first real blue rose was born.
"Obtaining the exact hue was difficult because amounts of the pigment cyanidin were still present, so the rose was darker in color than true blue. Recent work using RNAi technology to depress the production of cyanidin has produced a mauve colored flower, with only trace amounts of cyanidin. Genetically modified blue roses are currently being grown in test batches by Suntory Ltd., according to company spokesman Atsuhito Osaka," said the editors of Wikipedia.
"A truly blue rose has been the Holy Grail of rose breeders since 1840, when the horticultural societies of Britain and Belgium offered a prize of 500,000 francs to the first person to produce a blue rose. Molecular geneticists with Florigene and Suntory achieved the prize that had long eluded conventional rose breeders by combining something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue," added PhysOrg.Com. - 15437
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