
Click image for caption and other photo
information. Read the
magazine
story to find out more. Petal-Power
Gene Yields Unique BlossomsBy Marcia Wood May 13, 2003Flowers of the future may produce
beautiful blooms that boast more petals than usual. That's thanks to
investigations at the Plant Gene Expression
Center at Albany, Calif., where scientists have discovered the
petal-producing prowess of a gene called Ultrapetala. Agricultural
Research Service plant molecular biologist Jennifer C. Fletcher leads the
Ultrapetala work at the center, which is operated jointly by
ARS and the
University of California at Berkeley.
Fletcher's Ultrapetala studies have yielded new clues not only about
how plants form blossoms, but also about how they develop new shoots and other
structures. All of these plant parts originate from what are known as
meristematic cells. These young cells grow rapidly, divide quickly and
eventually specialize, or differentiate, to create flowers, leaves or stems.
The research suggests that Ultrapetala and some of the genes with
which it interacts are key players in the architecture of green plants. For her experiments, Fletcher used thale cress, or Arabidopsis
thaliana. This plant, a relative of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and
Brussels sprouts, has become the "lab rat" of plant molecular
biology. That's because A. thaliana has less genetic material than most
other plants. This relatively small genome makes it somewhat easier for
scientists to decipher the structure and function of each A. thaliana
gene. In turn, other scientists worldwide can use those discoveries in
their own studies of the genetic makeup of other green plants. In addition, A. thaliana is easy to grow in research greenhouses,
using familiar nursery flats. It develops quickly from seed to a fully mature,
8- to 16-inch-high plant in a mere four to six weeks. Fletcher has produced and investigated unique A. thaliana plants that
have as many as 10 creamy white petals instead of the usual four. Details are
in the May issue of
ARS' Agricultural Research magazine. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. U.S. Department of Agriculture |