Love it or loathe it, genetic engineering has been used in agriculture for years and is becoming increasingly widespread. Employing everything from selective cross breeding up to modern gene splicing techniques, science has been able to produce plants that are bigger, grow faster and are more resistant to disease. Now it seems it’s the turn of flowers to experience the benefit of a genetic makeover.
Researchers have discovered the means to enhance not only the look of flowers, but also their smell. Scientists from the University of Jerusalem say they can massively increase the scent given off by flowers, so that the aroma they produce is up to 10 times as strong.
Not only can they boost the smell, they can also switch them between different flowers; making carnations with the scent of roses, or petunias that smell like clarcias.
If this wasn’t confusing enough, a team from the University of Florida has gone even further, producing flowers than smell like, well, pretty much anything. Their discoveries mean that bouquets with the scent of bananas or pineapple are now a very real possibility.
Although the work might seem frivolous, or even against nature itself, there are some unexpected practical applications from the research.
Many flower species that have been bred purely for their appearance for many years have lost their original fragrance by-product of their selective breeding – gene modification could mean that these forgotten scents could be retrieved, allowing us to smell flowers whose scents might not have been sniffed for a century or more.
It’s also hoped that the research could be fed back into agriculture, where fruit and vegetables have been getting bigger and bigger but often at the expense of flavour.
Prime candidates for gene manipulation could include produce like tomatoes; bred to be large and waxy to look good on the shelf, but often bland and flavourless. The research on flowers could mean tomatoes with the best of supermarket looks with traditional garden taste.
It seems like the genetic engineering trend hasn’t escaped the notice of Interflora; it’s April Fool gag this year was the announcement that scientists have created the world’s first polka dot roses. Sadly they haven’t, but you get the feeling it might only be a matter of time…
