Flavonoids play an important role in the pigmentation of flowers; in addition, they protect petals and other flower parts from UV irradiation and oxidative stress. Nudicaulins, flavonoid-derived indole alkaloids, along with pelargonidin, kaempferol, and gossypetin glycosides, are responsible for the color of white, red, orange, and yellow petals of different Papaver nudicaule cultivars. The col...

The labellum in orchids shares homology with the inner lateral petals of the flower. The labellum is a modified petal and often distinguished from other petals and sepals due to its large size and irregular shape. Herein, we combined two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight/time of flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) approaches to identify the...

Genetic modification of secondary metabolic pathways to produce desirable natural products is an attractive approach in plant biotechnology. In our study, we attempted to produce a typical soybean isoflavone genistein, a well-known health-promoting metabolite, in non-legume plants via genetic engineering. Both overexpression and antisense suppression strategies were used to manipulate the expre...

Flowers are prized as objects of great beauty and diversity, and are commercially valuable (~US$4.5 billion in international trade yearly) and highly perishable. Biologically, flower petals have an important role in the lifecycle of plants, as they protect immature reproductive structures, then provide the attraction and accessibility needed for pollination to occur. Flower petal cell wall cons...

Blue-flowered gentian (Gentiana triflora) is known to accumulate gentiodelphin, a unique polyacylated delphinidin-type anthocyanin, in the petals. Almost all of the structural genes involved in gentiodelphin biosynthesis have been isolated, but an important gene encoding UDP-glucose:anthocyanin 5-O-glucosyltransferase (5GT) remained to be identified. In this study, an attempt was made to isolat...

Three MADS-box genes were identified from a cDNA library derived from young flowers of Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden. The three egm genes are single-copy genes and are expressed almost exclusively in flowers. The egm1 and egm3 genes shared strongest homology with other plant MADS-box genes, which mediate between the floral meristem and the organ-identity genes. The egm3 gene was also exp...

Despite the common use of the blooming metaphor, its floral inspiration remains poorly understood. Here we study the physical process of blooming in the asiatic lily Lilium casablanca. Our observations show that the edges of the petals wrinkle as the flower opens, suggesting that differential growth drives the deployment of these laminar shell-like structures. We use a combination of surgical m...

Very high surface area activated carbons (AC) are synthesized from pine cone petals by a chemical activation process and subsequently evaluated as an electrode material for supercapacitor applications in a nonaqueous medium. The maximum specific surface area of ∼3950 m(2)  g(-1) is noted for the material treated with a 1:5 ratio of KOH to pine cone petals (PCC5), which is much higher than that ...

Precarthamin, a yellow precursor of carthamin, was efficiently isolated from the yellow petals of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L. ) with Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography and preparative HPLC, and identified with UV-vis and NMR spectrometry. The UV-vis spectrum of precarthamin showed lambda(max) of 238 and 406 nm in MeOH. The molar extinction coefficients of precarthamin at 406 nm in MeOH...