See all the articles in our Valentine鈥檚 Special
WANT to woo someone with flowers? How about something really special, such as a blue rose, or maybe even an orchid that glows in the dark?
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Plant scientists have been trying for years to genetically modify flowers for aesthetic purposes. The first to go on sale were blue carnations produced by of Melbourne, Australia, in 1996.
However, producing flowers with dramatic new colours or smells has proved much harder than expected. Florigene鈥檚 attempts to develop a true-blue rose, by switching off production of red pigment and adding a blue pigment gene from the iris, have been only partially successful.
Although a will go on sale this year, it is mauve rather than true-blue. 鈥淲e are struggling,鈥� admits lead researcher Yoshikazu Tanaka of Suntory in Osaka, Japan, Florigene鈥檚 parent company.
It turns out that flower colour is influenced by factors other than pigment genes alone 鈥� pH, the presence of metal ions and even the . 鈥淚 think that we are in a better position now to know how to get a true blue rose, but the product might still be several years away,鈥� says Cathie Martin at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, who studies plant colour.
There have been some extraordinary creations along the way. In 1999, of the National Institute of Education in Singapore made orchids glow in the dark by adding the luciferase gene from fireflies. 鈥淭he glow is not very bright but can be seen with the naked eye after acclimatisation to the dark for a few minutes,鈥� Chia says. 鈥淚t is able to glow constantly for many hours.鈥� Unfortunately, the orchid never made it onto the market 鈥� but as it has taken 20 years to get a blue rose, one day it may be possible to woo somebody with a glowing flower.
