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UT scientists engineer flower to thrive in below-freezing temperatures,
December 2004 by Jenni Laidman, Blade Science Writer.

A team of researchers at the University of Toledo has created petunias
that survive in temperatures so low that other flowers curl up and die in
two hours.

The team of plant scientists, including Stephen Goldman, R.V. Sairam, and
Parani Madasamy, say this is only the beginning of the freeze-tolerant
flower species they can create. By inserting a gene from a weed that doesn't
mind the cold, the plants thrive in temperatures as low as 22 degrees
Fahrenheit.

"We can transform pretty much any crop using this gene," said Mr. Sairam,
assistant director of UT's Plant Science Research Center.

The genetic alteration also confers drought and salinity tolerance, said Mr.
Madasamy, who performed the hands-on work in the project. He is a research
assistant professor in the Plant Science Research Center.

The group hopes the work will benefit northwest Ohio greenhouse growers.

"The second-largest cost in the greenhouse industry is utilities," said Mr.
Goldman, director of the Plant Science Research Center. "When you're
competing with people out of Florida and out of California, it's a big
thing."

Freeze-tolerant plants might allow growers to reduce spring growing
temperatures by 10 to 20 degrees.

"That sounds really interesting" said Gene Klotz, owner of Klotz Flower Farm
on Napoleon Road in Bowling Green. "The cost of heating wasn't such a big
factor a few years ago. Now the cost, I would say, is at least 35 percent,
maybe even a little more. Where, before, we could look at maybe 10 percent.

"What I don't now for sure is, how well will the plant grow at those
temperatures?" Mr. Klotz said. If growth slows down in the cold, the benefit
could diminish.

And at the moment, the researchers can't answer that question. The petunias
will be tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funded the
research, to see how low the plants can go, how well they grow, and how long
they can survive at reduced temperatures.

Despite these open questions, the UT researchers already are talking to two
California growers.

"They wanted this in poinsettias. They said this would be much bigger than a
multi-million dollar" advance, if it worked, Mr. Sairam said.

While today's crop of freeze-baby petunias were made with a gene from a
mustard-family weed called Aribidopsis, the researchers also have learned
how to induce the petunia's own genes to prevent icy death.

By using a plant's own genes, Mr. Sairam says, the group hopes to overcome
objections to genetic modification, which typically involves introducing
genes from other species into a plant.

Finally, the plant could be altered so it wouldn't produce seed, allowing
reproduction only through cuttings. That would eliminate transgenic pollen.
Many worry that genetically altered pollen will allow uncontrolled genetic
modification of related species in the environment.

But as promising as these developments sound, Tom Wardell, past president of
the Toledo Area Flower and Vegetable Growers Association, and owner of
Wardell's Farm Market in Waterville, said there's no guarantee they'll get
to growers soon, if they get there at all.

"I don't know if the seed companies are even going to be interested in
something like that," Mr. Wardell said. "You can do a lot of things in a
laboratory situation, but there's still a lot of steps to be taken."
[toledoblade.com]
0/NEWS07

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