No.9525   2006. 7

Using Biotechnology to Synthesize
Yellow Pigment Aurone and Produce Yellow Flowers
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States of America

Suntory Limited has successfully used biotechnology to artificially create yellow flowers in collaboration with the Tohoku University Graduate School of Engineering. This technology could make it possible to develop yellow varieties of flowers not naturally available in that color, such as the geranium and the saintpaulia, also known as the African violet.

Two types of pigments give rise to yellow flowers—aurones, a type of flavonoid that is soluble in water and that causes a vivid yellow color in flowers such as snapdragons and dahlias, and carotenoids, which are insoluble in water and are found in tomato flowers and tulips.

The group of researchers from Suntory and Tohoku University analyzed the biosynthetic pathway of aurones in snapdragons. In 1998, the team extracted the gene of the enzyme AS, which catalyzes aurone biosynthesis (Yellow Gene B, below) in snapdragons. After further research, they discovered that another enzyme, chalcone glucosyltransferase, was necessary for intracellular aurone synthesis, and successfully extracted the gene for this enzyme (Yellow Gene A, below) from snapdragons. The group then introduced the two genes (Yellow Genes A and B) extracted from snapdragons into the torenia, which normally has blue flowers, and inhibited the pathway associated with the blue pigment, thereby successfully creating a yellow variety of torenia.

The group’s findings are so revolutionary that they were published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on July 10, 2006. It is the first ever report of genetic engineering being used to synthesize aurone and artificially produce yellow flowers.

This research is part of Suntory’s efforts to develop new flower colors through biotechnology. On June 30, 2004, Suntory announced that it had developed a blue rose (see News Release No. 8826 for details).

Efforts of Suntory Limited to transform flower colors using biotechnology