Abstract
Advances in research in the past few years on the ornamental plant torenia (Torenia spps.) have made it notable as a model plant on the frontier of genetic engineering aimed at studying ornamental characteristics and pest control in horticultural ecosystems. The remarkable advantage of torenia over other ornamental plant species is the availability of an easy and high-efficiency transformation system for it. Unfortunately, most of the current torenia research is still not very widespread, because this species has not become prominent as an alternative to other successful model plants such as Arabidopsis, snapdragon and petunia. However, nowadays, a more global view using not only a few selected models but also several additional species are required for creating innovative ornamental traits and studying horticultural ecosystems. We therefore introduce and discuss recent research on torenia, the family Scrophulariaceae, for secondary metabolite bioengineering, in which global insights into horticulture, agriculture and ecology have been advanced. Floral traits, in torenia particularly floral color, have been extensively studied by manipulating the flavonoid biosynthetic pathways in flower organs. Plant aroma, including volatile terpenoids, has also been genetically modulated in order to understand the complicated nature of multi-trophic interactions that affect the behavior of predators and pollinators in the ecosystem. Torenia would accordingly be of great use for investigating both the variation in ornamental plants and the infochemical-mediated interactions with arthropods.
Highlights
Torenia spps. are dicotyledonous plants that belong to the class Magnoliopsida, order Scrophulariales and family Scrophulariaceae, and include annuals and perennials
Torenia is the common name for several species in the genus Torenia (e.g. T. fournieri Lind., T. concolor Lind., T. asiatica L. and T. hybrida [T. fournieri x T. concolor]) [1]
The short generation time and small plant size of torenia make it possible to reduce the space and effort needed for maintenance compared with other ornamental model plant species such as the snapdragon and petunia
Summary
Torenia spps. are dicotyledonous plants that belong to the class Magnoliopsida, order Scrophulariales and family Scrophulariaceae, and include annuals and perennials. In ornamental plants, including torenia, genetic transformations have been applied for producing novel flower colors mainly by metabolic engineering of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway [33,34]. 252), generated by ion-beam irradiation of a transgenic torenia with modified flower color, formed flower buds but did not open flowers, whereas wild-type torenia plants usually open flowers until flower buds have developed at the upper joint [55] This mutant exhibited a missense mutation in the coding region of the UFO (UNUSUAL FLORAL ORGANS) gene that induced a sepaloid phenotype in which the second whorls were changed to sepal-like organs [55]. Floral volatiles, comprising 3-ethyl4-methylpentanol and a suite of monoterpenes [(+)-2carene, α-terpinene, p-cymene and limonene], abolished the supporting effect of the trans-volatile embedded in the natural HIPVs. Transgenic torenia provides an intriguing tritrophic system, as predator attraction was enhanced only when non-flowering plants were infested (Figure 2) [15]. He has intensively studied mechanisms of resistance to arthropod herbivores
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