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World's First True Blue Rose, Thanks to Biotech

Posted by timothy on from the saves-one-item-at-weddings dept.

FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers from CSRIO achieved the holy grail of rose breeders since 1840 - breeding a blue rose. Using RNAi technology, they knocked down the red pigment gene and introduced a blue pigment producing one. The result is the world's first true blue rose - no word about whether it'll be commercially available or not. A factsheet describing the technique and a detailed summary are available."

3 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Here! by PhilHibbs · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.physorg.com/news3581.html

  2. Re:A rose by any other genetic code... by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

    The way of talking about this that is in current vogue among biologists seems to be "cladistic analysis". All life forms are classified in a tree structure representing evolutionary pedigree. This is probably a gross simplification, but every genetic innovation creates a new branch (or clades). Some would argue that traditional taxonomic categories like genera and species are meaningless.

    If you replace the red gene with a blue gene, you have developed a new clades. It is still substantially a rose, whether or not it smell sweet. Of course your mom might not call this thing a rose if it smelled like a skunk, so YMMV.

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  3. Re:How I long for the Blues... by HavokDevNull · · Score: 4, Informative

    picture here Florigene LTD

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