Apple Gene for Red Color Found

FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers have located the gene that controls the red color of apples — a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties. 'The red color in apple skin is the result of anthocyanins, the natural plant compounds responsible for blue and red colours in many flowers and fruits,' says the leader of the CSIRO. By identifying master genes that were activated by light, they were able to pinpoint the gene that controls the formation of anthocyanins in apples. 'As well as giving apples their rosy red hue, anthocyanins are also antioxidants with healthy attributes, giving us plenty of reasons to study how the biochemical pathway leading to apple color is regulated,' researchers said."

Comments

Does that mean

[Anonymous Coward]

Were going to be seeing Red iPods soon

Re:Does that mean

[alamandrax]

finally, they can make those red nosed reindeer we keep hearing about. i'll bet it'll look great in front of a K-mart. let's get martha to pitch in.

Re:Does that mean

[__aaclcg7560]

You mean these? I think your gene pool may have an active "slow on the uptake" gene. :P

colors

[Anonymous Coward]

orange apples incoming

now apples and oranges shall be COMPARABLE!!!

Re:colors

[Salvance]

Now all they need to do is make all fruits LOOK the same, but taste different. That would be fun, although a bit of a pain in the grocery store I suspect. You'd have all those prankster kids grabbing the kumquat flavored generifruit and putting them in the banana flavored generifruit bins.

Re:colors

[polar red]

I want a black apple, that's WAAY cooler.

Re:colors

[James McGuigan]

I want the classic snow white apple.

Re:colors

[jrockway]

> So what are you, some kind of racist?

Apples have race?

Think of the marketing potential

[Anonymous Coward]

Now in stores, they'll be able to have Apples in Blueberry, Grape, Lime, Strawberry and Tangerine colours. Oh wait...

Re:Apples & Oranges

[zippthorne]

Already are my friend. Already are.

...Just in Time for Xmas

[mwnyc]

"...the red color of apples -- a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties" Yup...looks that way.

Re:...Just in Time for Xmas

[jpardey]

So your parents read slashdot too?

awesome varieties

[blueadept1]

Next poll:

What would you like your apple to look like?
- Green and red stripes
- Green and red checkers
- Black
-Cowboyneil's ass

errrr...

Re:awesome varieties

[ZachPruckowski]

Missing Option: Rainbow Colored

Oh Crap...

[ewl1217]

Now we're going to see blue apples... and I thought green ketchup was bad...

Black Apple!

[nighty5]

OK fuckers, I'm prepared to pay extra cash for a Black Apple.

CSIRO - do you ugliest.

Countdown Until Somebody Patents This:

[ewl1217]

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

And I believe it's called...

[Anonymous Freak]

"Bono".

Roses are red...

[hall_simon]

Roses are red, Apples are too, I know you colour gene, Now you are blue!

Re:It's the genetics not the color or the chemical

[jpardey]

Chemicals may be expensive in some cases, but I believe in general chemical fertilizer is cheaper than transporting compost, when crops are grown in large batches. I think "you are what you eat" applies to apples as well as anything, and a bag of chemicals... is not going to taste as good as a bag of composted leaves, windfall, and faecal matter. OK, never mind that analogy.

Re:Can they figure out a way of manufacturing food

[kfg]

Can they figure out a way of manufacturing food in mass quantities with minimal raw materials. That is, you have a factory to which u supply water, esentail minerals (mined ore?) that contain iron etc, and electricty and out the other end comes out a starch like carbohydrate and nutrients.

It's called a potato field.

KFG

This proves it!

[soft_guy]

Slashdot has a definate pro-apple bias!

Re:Bright new apple varieties?

[Reziac]

I read somewhere that the wide array of new colours in petunias (which when I was a kid, only came in white, red, pink, and red/white striped) derive from the addition of genes from corn.

A few years ago I planted a couple random flats of these new-colour'd petunias, and let them crossbreed and reseed however they pleased. The next generation's blooms were strange, to say the least. Some had irregular white blotches; others were delicately shaded, like watercolours that had gotten wet. Many had a crepe or wrinkled texture. Some displayed unlikely shades of blue and purple that I'd never seen before. A few had a "beard" (extra petals, but not a double flower). And most were moderately hardy perennials, surviving winter temps down to the mid teens. (Tho a perennial in the tropics, petunias normally die off at the first frost.) And they all bloomed like there was no tomorrow, and the 3rd generation came up like weeds.

I had the weirdest looking flower garden you ever saw. :)