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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."

1 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. The modifications are NOT permenent! by clonan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They use siRNA to turn off the color genes.

    SiRNA is a RNA that is maintained by the host completly seperate from the genome. It happens to compliment the RNA of the target gene and therefore inhibits expression.

    SiRNA is not stable long term. THese roses will slowly revert to the original levels of Red/Orange with blue tossed in as well.

    To make this permenent you will need to deactivate the color genes on the genome level rather than the cytoplasmic/transcription level.