You are obviously considerably more knowledgeable and conversant on
the subject of orchid genetics than me. Would you happen to be
familiar with arcana of the inheritance of fragrance in orchids?
I don't have any unique tap into the fountain of wisdom. Or at
least if I do I haven't figured out how to open it. I specialize in
genomes and gene annotation. That means I know a little bit about a lot
of things, and just enough to get me into trouble, but not out of it. I
know nothing about fragrance though, so I won't go there. But, if
anybody wants to do the 'Orchid Genome Project' (OGP), I'm your guy.
I am attempting to hybridize reed-stem Epidendrums. The target
phenotype is basically the typical reed-stem growth form, habit and
hardiness with the addition of (day/night) fragrance,
increased/inhanced flower size and form, and of course, new colors
(blue?).
Violet Blue? How much money you got? If you and a dozen of your
friends contribute the cash equivalent of a compact car, I've always
wanted to do that particular transgenic experiment. I have an idea
about the genes in the biosynthetic pathway, but it costs money to
isolate them and transduce them into orchids... Blue phalaenopsis might
be neat too. I think it is a harder project to breed in blue the old
fashioned way (but please try, I want some).
Your example mentioned the female Epidendrums' iron-fisted dominance
of plant and flower morphology. While color seems to be determined by
both nuclear genetics and cyto ordinals, have you any idea of the
mechanism of inheritance of fragrance?
That wasn't my example... I have one though. From the few grexes I
have grown out enough of, Phrag. schlimii (which smells like raspberries
to me, but there is a genetic component on the sniffer end as well, I
think) was capable of passing fragrance onto Hanne Popow, regardless of
it being pod or pollen parent. That would imply nuclear, assuming that
the grexes were labelled correctly. Take that as you will, it is
certainly not a controlled experiment. If you know what genes are
involved in fragrance biosynthesis in epidendrums, I can easily tell you
where they are. Figuring out which genes is the hard part.
--
Rob's Rules:
http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit