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2025.12.22
Others Plant science Story1990｜The Blue Rose Project started
Producing blue roses---The challenge to the impossible started in 1990. Suntory decided to tackle this dreamful project in collaboration with an Australian venture company Florigene Ltd. (named Calgene Pacific Pty Ltd. then; hereinafter referred to as Florigene). Thanks to the rapid advancement of plant biotechnologies in the 1980s, it was expected that blue roses could be developed with these technologies. Thus, there were many research teams engaged in similar projects to produce blue roses in the world, and the competition had already started under cover.
This article is a re-edited version of an article that appeared on our corporate website in 2014. Job titles, department names, and photos are current as of the time of publication (2014) and may differ from the present.
Article Summary
Long regarded as a “symbol of the impossible,” the blue rose project began in 1990 as a joint research initiative with an Australian biotechnology company. At the time, teams around the world were already racing to secure related patents, and the project faced two formidable scientific challenges: identifying the genes responsible for blue pigmentation and developing a method to introduce them into rose cells. Researcher Tanaka relocated to Australia to take on these challenges on the front line. This article revisits the beginning of this ambitious project and highlights the determination and perseverance of the researchers who pursued a goal once believed to be unattainable.
Two key technical challenges for achieving success
There were two technical barriers that had to be solved to produce blue roses. One was to “isolate genes (blue genes) necessary to synthesize a blue pigment (delphinidin) from among tens of thousands of genes contained in blue flowers.” The other was to “develop the methods to introduce these genes into cells of roses and produce genetically modified roses from these cells.” It was especially necessary to solve the first issue of isolation of blue genes earlier than the rivals and apply for the patent of the gene because such genes were patentable.
The challenge to produce “blue roses,” which signify the impossible, started (Senior General Manager Yoshikazu Tanaka Ph.D.)
Dispatched to a new world: Australia
About 6 years after joining the company, I heard a rumor that Suntory would make a challenge to develop blue roses in collaboration with Florigene, a venture company in Australia. Because I was not especially interested in plants, I did not even know the fact that blue roses did not exist in the world. However, I felt I needed a change in my company carrier and wanted to work abroad, so I sort of volunteered.
At that time, I belonged to the laboratory of microorganisms, but was transferred to the plant research group with the initiation of the project, and immediately moved to Australia. At the beginning, I had difficulties because of the uniqueness of Australian English and I did not understand the context of daily research activities, but got used to the research life there quickly with the support of friendly colleagues.
Christmas card handwritten by the President
There were no big technical barriers for me to start working with plants because microorganisms and plants are much the same as far as molecular biology concerned. People often wonder how patient we had to be to look for two blue genes from 30,000 plant genes, but I knew research is such as I had dealt with fungi or mammalian genes. I did not find it really hard.
During the Christmas season, I received a Christmas card from the President at that time, Keizo Saji, with a handwritten message “I am waiting for blue roses just as I am eager to see my sweetheart.” I was needless to say impressed with the witty message, but most of all, I was pleased that he remembered each of us employees dispatched abroad. I still treasure this card.
Were the ancestors of roses living tens of millions of years ago blue!?
As we examined plant genes, I hypothesized that the ancestors of roses might have had blue genes and that blue roses might have bloomed tens of millions of years ago.
No current rose family has blue genes, which means that they were not necessary for the ancestors of roses to survive. They might have eliminated unnecessary blue genes at some point of time in the process of evolution.
All we can do is to imagine what kind of colors the ancient blue roses had, but if there were a time machine, I would love to see them. Perhaps, not only their colors but also their shapes were quite different from those of current roses.
Profile
Yoshikazu Tanaka
Senior General Manager
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