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Researchers at Japan’s Suntory Global Innovation Center engineered roses to produce blue pigments and colorless helper molecules, creating flowers rated violet blue on a flower color chart. The plants continued flowering in greenhouse tests for seven years and in Colombian field tests for three years; the team says it hopes to deepen the hue.
Researchers at the Suntory Global Innovation Center in Japan have engineered roses that produce blue pigments along with colorless helper molecules, yielding flowers rated violet blue on a flower color chart. The result addresses a long-running challenge in plant science: roses can make red and yellow pigments, but producing a blue-looking flower required more than giving them a gene for blue pigment.
The researchers added four genes from other flower species to a light pink rose. A gene from Canterbury bells enabled the roses to produce multiple blue pigments. Two genes from wishbone flowers and one from clustered gentian supplied enzymes involved in producing colorless helper molecules known as flavone C-glycosides.
In the engineered flowers, the blue pigment malvidin combined with a helper molecule called isoorientin to make bluer flowers than roses producing only delphinidin, according to the company’s account of the research. The researchers also found that petals with higher levels of co-pigments appeared bluer. The resulting flowers are classified as violet blue, rather than described as a pure or fully blue shade.
The bushes continued to produce the flowers during seven years of greenhouse testing in Japan and three years of field growing in Colombia. Suntory announced the results on August 25 at the 32nd International Horticultural Congress in Kyoto. The team said it hopes to further enhance the color.
Why Blue Roses Needed Helpers
The result points to a more involved route to flower color than inserting a gene for a desired pigment. Although earlier engineered roses could make the blue pigment delphinidin, their flowers appeared purplish. The new work indicates that other molecules in the petals also affect how a pigment looks.
That finding could inform efforts to alter flower colors in other plants. It also marks progress toward a blue-looking rose, a color long sought by plant breeders. The current result is specifically rated violet blue, and the researchers say they are still working to intensify the hue.
From Delphinidin to Violet Blue
Roses naturally produce red and yellow pigments but lack an enzyme needed to make blue pigments. In 2004, researchers at Suntory’s Kyoto center inserted a gene for an enzyme that produces delphinidin, a blue pigment found in naturally blue flowers. The modified roses nevertheless looked purplish, showing that the pigment alone did not create the desired appearance.
Some naturally blue flowers, including irises, contain delphinidin and nearly colorless co-pigments. These molecules can stabilize pigments and deepen their visible color. Roses also lacked genes for making the relevant helpers. In the newer work, the research team combined genes for pigment production with genes that enable the rose to make co-pigments, including isoorientin.
“The researchers found that the higher the level of co-pigments in the petals, the bluer the flowers.”
— Suntory Global Innovation Center
How Blue the Roses Can Become
The reported color classification is violet blue; the source material does not establish that the flowers appear as a pure or vivid blue. It also does not provide detailed measurements of color, test conditions, or comparisons across different growing environments. While the bushes flowered during tests in Japan and Colombia, the report does not describe how the color varied between those locations.
The account does not state whether or when the engineered roses may be sold, what regulatory steps would apply, or how they would perform outside the reported tests. The team has said it hopes to intensify the color, but has not given a timetable or a target shade.
Researchers Seek a Deeper Hue
The researchers’ stated next aim is to further enhance the flower’s color. The reported findings establish that combining blue pigments with co-pigments can produce flowers classified as violet blue, while the multi-year tests show continued flowering in the tested greenhouse and field settings.
Further information would be needed to assess how much the color can be changed, how consistently it appears under different growing conditions, and whether the roses will reach commercial production. No release date or commercial plan was included in the reported announcement.
Key Questions
Are the engineered roses fully blue?
The reported flowers are rated violet blue on a flower color chart. The source does not describe them as a pure blue.
What genes did the researchers add?
The team inserted four genes from Canterbury bells, wishbone flowers and clustered gentian. They enable production of multiple blue pigments and enzymes involved in making colorless co-pigments.
Why did the earlier engineered roses look purplish?
The earlier roses were modified to produce the blue pigment delphinidin. The newer research indicates that pigment alone was not enough; co-pigments also affected the visible hue.
How long did the roses flower in tests?
The bushes continued to produce flowers for seven years in greenhouse tests in Japan and three years in field growing in Colombia, according to the report.
Will the engineered roses be sold?
The reported announcement gives no release date or commercial plan. The team said it hopes to further enhance the color.
Source: hn
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