Rudyard Kipling in his poem “Blue Roses” attributed the search for this flower as an unattainable quest since it did not exist; but not anymore. Today the fantasy called blue rose finally became a reality. The rose which was the favorite flower of lovers and poets alike for five thousand years has finally become available in the shade that depicts royalty, the wonderful and tranquil shade of blue. An extraordinarily amazing flower of absolute grace and fragility the rose occurs in the lap of Mother Nature in a varying of colors ranging from ruby red to sweet pink from bright yellow to serene white. But blue roses were always attributed to be till recently the fabricated outcome of a flight of surreal fantasy. This thankfully no longer holds true. Epitomized in a number of mediums like poems, books, films, music and even the modern rage of video games the blue rose has always been in style from time immemorial.

In 2004 after 20 years of arduous research, patenting and $45 million of Australian dollars Florigene an Australian genetic engineering floriculture company and Suntory, its Japanese soft drinks partner announced to the world that it had developed the world’s first blue rose. In 1991 Florigene formerly known as Calgene had successfully isolated the gene responsible for the blue colour in petunias. Though the blue roses have yet to hit the market it will undoubtedly have a huge market and will be priced relatively high. But for connoisseurs of roses, exquisite florists and for that mesmerized romantic lover the price will be warranted for this unique and one of a kind modern miracle.

With the help of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization ( CSIRO), scientists who developed the breakthrough process of switching-off plant and animal genes by RNA interference (RNAi) , the Florigene and Suntory’s geneticists were able to switch of the Roses dihydroflavonol reductase (DFR) gene that prevents the formation of the blue pigment called as delphinidin; inject the delphinidin derived from pansy coupled with the DFR gene of Iris into the rose and voila the world finally saw its renowned love flower come up with a change in color from the baby blue that is pale in color to a darker and deeper navy blue.

The Florigene-Suntory rose is double milestone in plant history, although the blue rose archetype is nothing other than pale mauve. It is considered to be as the primary rose with genetic potential in the entire world that leads to what is called as ‘true blue’ roses. With a little more innovation the Blue Rose team is all set to decrease the acidity in the petals of the rose to enable it to express the wide spectrum of shades of blue. A truly blue rose has for long been the Holy Grail of rose breeders and today thanks to the innovative and novel technologies in genetics and molecular biology we finally have our blue rose which is the herald and the great example of new generation breeding in today’s world!

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Category: Advice
Keywords: blue rose, mystery, calgene, florigene, blue, rose