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Article|11 Apr 2022|OPEN
Reporter genes confer new-to-nature ornamental traits in plants
Guoliang Yuan1,2 ,† , Haiwei Lu1,3 , David J. Weston1,2 and Sara Jawdy1,2 , Timothy J. Tschaplinski1,2 , Gerald A. Tuskan1,2 , , Xiaohan Yang,1,2 ,
1Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge TN 37831, USA
2The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
3Current address: Department of Academic Education, Central Community College – Hastings, Hastings, NE 68902, USA
*Corresponding author. E-mail: tuskanga@ornl.gov,yangx@ornl.gov
†Guoliang Yuan contributed equally to the study.

Horticulture Research 9,
Article number: uhac077 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhac077
Views: 406

Received: 28 Dec 2021
Accepted: 17 Mar 2022
Published online: 11 Apr 2022

Abstract

Dear Editor,

Ornamental plants (trees, shrubs, and herbs) beautify our urban and rural environments, enrich the quality of human life, and represent a vital component of the horticultural industry. The introduction of novel plant varieties and cultivars is critical to the ornamental horticultural industry [1]. To develop ornamental plants with desirable traits, different approaches, such as ploidy manipulation, interspecific hybridization, and physical/chemical mutagenesis, have been used for decades [2, 3]. However, the breeding of new ornamental varieties of trees and shrubs is a time- and labor-consuming process, because these plants may have a long juvenile growth period, large physical size, or altered floral structures, and consequently require long-term observations, large areas for progeny testing, and/or special equipment for pollination and/or seed collection [4].