Scientists on the scent of a rose that lasts far longer

A BOUQUET of roses is the quintessential romantic gift – even though their beauty quickly fades.

But scientists could be about to make a rose that will be a much longer-lasting token of love using gene-editing technology.

They plan to create a variety which can last longer in a vase, smell sweeter, and is able to bloom all year round.

Gene-edited bouquets of roses are only a few years away, according to a French scientist. The researcher is part of a team which has sequenced the genome of the garden rose for the first time, fully mapping out the blueprint of the flower’s cells.

The breakthrough could benefit gardeners by creating variants resistant to the fungal disease black spot or unaffected by greenfly. Using technology known as Crispr, they will be able to change a plant’s DNA, adapting the characteristics of the plant far more quickly than would be possible through traditional methods.

Scientists took very young leaves from a rose, crushed them to extract the DNA, then used a machine to read the genetic code. They also looked at one of the precursors to the modern flower – the ‘Old Blush’ variety, taken from China in the 18th century and the forefather of hundreds of the 35,000 rose varieties which exist today.

The results have allowed them to identify genes which might be tweaked to improve the flowers. Co-author Dr Mohammed Bendahmane, of the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, said: ‘I hope we will be able to change how these flowers look in the future and make them last longer with more of a scent, which is lost the longer roses stay in a vase.’

In the study, published in the Nature Genetics journal, researchers wrote: ‘This genome provides a foundation for understanding the mechanisms governing rose traits and should accelerate improvement in roses.’