Year: 2022

EPHEMERAL TULIP VARIANTS. "Clusius already noticed in1585 that "broken", multi-colored plants also slowly degenerated: "any tulip thus changing its original colour is usually ruined afterwards and so wanted only to delight its master's eyes with this variety of colors before dying, as if to bid him a last farewell." Striped flowers tended to deteriorate and finally die. He also noticed that uniformly colored flowers were healthy and lived longer." Loss of effect of somatic transposons. https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn

TULIP BREAKING VIRUS. "So Clusius was the first to discover and explicitly describe the phenomenon of epigenetics already in 1585. This is 430 years ago! The epigenetic effect was caused by a virus - the Tulip Breaking virus TBV, it breaks the colors, therefore this name. It took 400 years, until after World War II for the virus to be discovered." https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn

EPHEMERAL BEAUTY. "The broken tulips that once achieved such fame, on the other hand, no longer exist. Weakened as they were by the mosaic virus, the original species—including even famed varieties such as Viceroy and Semper Augustus—were in any case doomed to flourish for only a short time, but even their successors are long gone now; for years the only flared and flamed tulips available to gardeners have been imitations produced by careful cross-breeding." https://lnkd.in/dkNDdDY View in LinkedIn

VIRAL DRIVEN FLOWERS. "Some of the best characterized beneficial viruses that have been used in plants are those that enhance the beauty of ornamental plants. Tulip breaking virus was the first of a long list of the beautiful viruses, but many other prized ornamentals owe their value, at least in part, to the viruses that infect them." https://lnkd.in/d7TweVT View in LinkedIn

TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS. "Today we describe jumping genes by computer programs as "cut-and paste", a piece of DNA is cut out and reinserted into the DNA genome, designated as transposable or mobile genetic elements. They are rudimentary "locked-in-viruses", which cannot leave a cell but can only move from one location to another one in the genome. Plants are especially active till today with such active DNA transposable element." https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn

"EPIGENETIC CHANGES as cause of colors were detected in the 1950ies for maize kernels by Barbara McClintock from Cold Spring Habor Laboratories. The Laws of Gregor Mendel`s were known, but the color patterns did not obey them and it was the genius of McClintock`s to conclude that this was what is now known as epigenetic changes." https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn

GIANT TULIP GENOME. "The tulip genome is gigantic, it is ten times as big as the human genome amounting to 30 Bio nucloetides, while we have 3.2 Bio of nucleotides." https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn

TULIP GENOME. "The genetic complexity is high not only in tulips but also in maize, and other cultured plants such as rice or wheat. The accumulation of genes may result from breeding. In tulips the genome is almost tripled, three similar chromosomes accumulated, but did not quite stay identical but evolved separately to some extent. The plants can easily lose up to one third or even half of their genes, without much noticeable differences." https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn

SEMPER AUGUSTUS. "Many believe that the Tulip ‘Semper Augustus’ is the holy grail of all tulip bulbs. Made famous during the well documented Tulip-mania period of 1637-1637, they were considered by many to be the most beautiful of all flowers and a pinnacle of achievement from the breeders." https://lnkd.in/d3W5rw7 View in LinkedIn

VIRAL PURGING. "Breeders today are trying to make Semper Augustus again. Surprising all of the former tulips have gone extinct and recently breeders eliminate tulips whenever they suspect some viruses to be present." https://lnkd.in/dqpDyTS View in LinkedIn