Friday, May 4, 2018

New genetic details may make roses smell like roses

An international team of researchers has discovered new genes and 22 uncharacterized steps that plants can take in the process that gives their flowers their fragrance. Because rose breeders tend to aim for plants that are more visually appealing, those plants that are known more for their fragrance have fallen off. This new paper focuses on "rosa chinensis" which is a contributor to modern hybrids and it has been found that the genes for scent and color tend to go against eachother. With this new knowledge in hand breeders can now have a better handle on trying to control the tradeoffs that occur when breeding for specifically showy colors in roses.



I find this interesting but also funny at the same time that a genetic fix has been discovered to make roses.... smell like.... roses. And that the initial reason for these same roses losing their original scent was because of crossbreeding(genetics). I wonder if this will be something that is done for other flowers, fruits, or vegetables that may have lost certain characteristics due to continuous cross-breeding.

Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/roses-scent-genetics-fragrance

2nd Link: https://www.zmescience.com/science/rose-genome-sequenced-30042018/

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting that those genes oppose each other. This when thinking about it makes sense iv never personally smelled a rose that smells like what rose sented soaps, oils, ect (what is believed to be the sent of rose). I would like to know what other flowers has this form of opposition within them selves as well.

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