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Article: Longer life for flowers. (Purdue Univ researchers discover genes that cause flowers to wilt and the workings of this process)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- June 1, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Research at Purdue University may bud into flowers that last longer, reaping benefits for florists, greenhouses, consumers, and farmers. William R. Woodson, professor horticulture, and graduate students Hanan Itzhaki and Julie M. Maxson have identified the genes that cause flowers to wilt and how this process works.
Previously, it was thought, even among scientists, that flowers wilted because of an unregulated death of the tissues. Woodson is the first to prove that flowers perish because of a specific genetic response. In other words, the flowers don't die of old age. The plants intentionally kill the blooms.
This makes biological sense, Woodson says. The ...