The secret to making sweeter-smelling roses
Now, a team of geneticists say they’ve found the gene that gives roses their scent, and that discovery may help rose breeders produce sweeter-smelling roses again.
Roses’ Fading Scent
When you sniff a rose, you’re inhaling a mixture of hundreds of chemical compounds that add up to a pleasant scent. Most of those nice-smelling compounds are alcohols called monoterpenes.
But many modern rose cultivars don’t produce as many monoterpenes as their ancestors once did. Natural selection originally put pressure on roses to evolve a sweet scent that would attract pollinators, but when rose breeders stepped in instead, things changed.
“Rose breeders have focused on the most commercially important characteristics,” explained geneticist and study co-author Philippe Hugueney. Today’s roses were bred for attractive looks and flowers that can stay fresh in a vase for a long time. Since they’re a commercial crop, they were also bred for disease resistance and the ability to survive transport around the world.
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