Abstract
The discovery of commercial transgenic varieties of orange petunias sold in Europe and the United States although they had never reached the approved status, and the consequent recommendation to destroy them, was the trigger to discuss about biotechnological improvement of ornamental plants. Inside the restricted world of 26 vegetal transgenic species, according to the ISAAA’s reports (http://www.isaaa.org), there are three ornamental species: carnation, rose and the Beijing University developed petunia; all of them with the same trait, a change in their colour. On the other hand, in 2014, the whole-genome sequence of carnation appeared which was the first and until now the only one among ornamental species. In this context, we review the publications from the last five years in petunia, rose, chrysanthemum and carnation. In these papers there are detailed descriptions of modification of the cascade of genes and transcription factors involved in stress situations, in different developmental stages and their regulation through different plant hormones. This knowledge will allow breeding for better and new varieties with changes in their abiotic or biotic stress tolerance, altered growth or yield and modified product quality as colour or fragrance.
Highlights
At the beginning of 2017 there was some news that surprized many people: some of the petunia commercial strains, in Europe and the United States (US), were transgenic
Dr Teeri took a sample, as he knew that the genetically modified (GM) petunias never reached commercial status, and confirmed they were transgenic with a DNA insert matching the transgene described in the paper from 1987
He bought online other orange petunia seed varieties which were carrying the same construction (BASHANDY and TEERI 2017). This discovery became known by a regulator at the Finnish Board for Gene Technology and on 27th April this year the Finland’s food safety body, called for eight petunia varieties to be removed from the market
Summary
At the beginning of 2017 there was some news that surprized many people: some of the petunia commercial strains, in Europe and the United States (US), were transgenic. One of these events was transformed with a modified transcript of the 1-amino-cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase gene from Dianthus caryophyllus to reduce the synthesis of endogenous ethylene, delaying senescence and promoting longer vase life Both bluish carnations and roses can be found in the market, but with restrictions according to the fact that they are GMO and that several countries have banned their production and/or commercialization. There is an important amount of research and development carried out in some ornamental species, that goes beyond transgenesis and include NBTs and genomic studies, especially in petunia, for its importance as model system, and in rose, chrysanthemum and carnation for their economic importance and their background in research These advances could allow, in a near future, to produce novel varieties to be incorporated to the market and sold in several countries. In the following lines we review the publications from the last five years in these four species that show a very promising future
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