VIOLET carnations produced by genetic engineering will go on sale in the US
and Europe later this year. The blooms, created by Florigene of Melbourne, have
a gene from petunias that makes them violet, a hue they cannot produce
naturally. The move seems certain to dismay environmentalists opposed to genetic
modification.
Founded a decade ago, Florigene has yet to realise its initial aim of
breeding a blue rose. But through genetic engineering, it has produced several
flowers with novel bluish-violet hues that are impossible to achieve through
conventional plant hybridisation. 鈥淭hey go from mauve through to black, and none
of these colours has existed before in carnations,鈥� says Peter Molloy, the chief
executive of Florigene. 鈥淲e have effectively created new species of
肠补谤苍补迟颈辞苍蝉.鈥�
Florigene is to launch the violet carnation, which it has named Moonshadow,
at a major horticultural show in Kansas City next month. In November, the plant
will be launched in Europe at a global flower convention in Aalsmeer, the
Netherlands. The plants will be grown under glass in Spain.
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Molloy believes the carnations pose no environmental threat鈥攁nd the
regulators agree. Florigene has approval to sell the flowers from the US and the
European Commission. 鈥淭he application to sell the plants went through
unopposed,鈥� says a spokesman for Britain鈥檚 Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions.
Molloy points out that the growing carnations will be confined in
greenhouses, so no genetic material should escape. Florigene says that
cultivated carnations produce relatively little pollen, and what pollen there is
cannot be spread by the wind as it is heavy, sticky and buried deep within the
flower. The flowers produce no new pollen after they have been cut.
John Beringer, the chairman of Britain鈥檚 Advisory Committee on Releases to
the Environment, says that the cut carnations are essentially infertile and have
no weedy relatives to which the violet trait could spread. Nor would weeds
become more problematic if they became violet. 鈥淭hese are glasshouse crops that
pose no threat to the environment,鈥� he says.
Florigene has successfully test-marketed the new blooms in Australia. Next
year, it will launch a black carnation and a range of ordinary-looking
carnations genetically modified to last a month in the vase.
The company discovered and patented the 鈥渂lue gene鈥� from petunias in 1991.
The gene codes for an enzyme called flavonoid 3鈥�,5鈥�-hydroxylase, which is vital
for the creation of delphinidin, the blue pigment in a wide range of flowers
including petunias, violets, hyacinths and irises.
However, a true blue rose remains elusive, as delphinidin can be masked by
existing pigments or chemically altered by high acidities in the petals,
diluting its blue colour
(see 鈥淏rave new rose鈥�, New 杏吧原创, 31 October 1998, p 30).
Molloy hopes true blue roses will emerge through crosses of
the engineered varieties with native Japanese roses.