Celebrate Valentines Day with Color Changing Flowers

Wouldnt it be great if you could break the mold and give your special someone something other than Roses for Valentines Day? Research being done atRevolution Bioengineeringmay allow you to do just that.

Revolution Bioengineering is a new biotech company in Fort Collins, CO that is working on building aPetunia Circadia, a flower that changes color throughout the day. The petunia will be developed using synthetic biology.

There are exciting opportunities available right now in horticulture and floriculture to develop GM flowers, said Dr. Nickolai Braun, member of the Revolution Bioengineering Team.

Developing consumer biotechnology for the average consumer (80 million US households garden, ~70% of USA) allows people to become more familiar with this technology.

In arecent press release,Dr. Braun outlined the science behind the project -Plants have circadian rhythms: cyclical expression ofgenes throughout the day. This allows them to start photosynthesis when the sun comes up or releasefragrance in the evening when their pollinators are active. Petunia Circadia will harness this internal clock to regulate flower color, resulting in a flower that changes color over approximately twelve hours.

In a recent interviewwith the Silicon Republic, Keira Havens,CEO of Revolution Bioengineering, stated

It is their hope that once they have developed the science, they will be able to remove the stigma attached to what the plant would be, a genetically modified organism (GMO).

With examples in the news of engineered crops causing havoc with ecosystems and supposed negative effects on human health, the term GMO has almost become an acronym to fear in some circles.

For Havens and Braun, however, they believe if they can show the beautiful side of science, their flowers could prove a watershed moment in pushing forward some other significant syn-bio advances that could greatly benefit the world.

Ideas and innovations like the color changing flower areexciting examples of how scientists are realizing the full potential of plant biotechnology. Unfortunately though it may bring a whole new palette of arguments to the GMO debate.

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Celebrate Valentines Day with Color Changing Flowers