The mystery of different colours of plants

How do plants have different colours - The mystery of different colours of plants.

Highlights

Exploration of the different pigments that are responsible for providing plants with a variety of shades.
Change in genetics could lead to some amazing discoveries.

Have you ever wondered how do plants have different colours? From where do they get so much of different variety? Which science is working behind this matter that makes red roses red, and violets blue, let’s discover.

We have generally seen that flowers are mostly liked by people. We admire their beauty, the fragrance and especially the perfect blend of colours that make them so much mesmerizing that it can attract the pollinators. But when we try to explore the answer for the so much variety in terms of the flower’s colour then you may say that it would have the same reason as the people with different eyeball shades may have for so much variance in the colour of the eyeballs of different people. The colour in flowers like red in rose, yellow in marigold, blue in violets is due to the pigments that are decided upon in the hereditary genome of the plant. These pigments are called anthocyanins, flavonoids, carotenoid, and chlorophyll. The fascinating fact to know is that plants possess some pigments in their genes that determine the colour of the plants before they are even born.

Anthocyanins

Anthocyanins could be regarded as an integral part of a communication and protection plan. This pigment is produced by very specialized metabolic pathways, they just don’t allow the harmful radiation and corral cell-damaging free radicals. Anthocyanins, at last, present their true self in a vacuole that is a membrane-bound organelle that is available in every plant as well as fungal cell. Scientists are very much aware of the procedure by which anthocyanins are combined in the central metabolism of the plant, but they have very less knowledge regarding their final voyage to the vacuole. In a discovery led by Erich Grotewold, a National Science Foundation-funded biochemist and molecular biologist at Michigan State University, along with his teammates developed some experiments to check the hypothesis that an enzyme from the glutathione S-transferase (GST) family saves anthocyanins while they are conducting their voyage to the vacuole. The function performed by the GST in the formation of anthocyanin pigments has not been completely discovered yet. It was believed that they can do it by chemically, modifying the pigment but the evidence is showing something else. According to the proof, the formation of anthocyanin is possible by binding to the pigment and helping them to move to the vacuole without being degraded.

A study was published in Nature Communication, according to that study there is a link in between the central and specialized metabolism of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that may explore so many more extraordinary aspects leading to the understanding of how these aspects of plant metabolism coordinate. This can be seen as an experiment that can open the doors for new and awesome discoveries related to this matter.

Chlorophylls

Chlorophyll is a green pigment and is responsible for the green colour of foliage, and leaves. Chlorophylls have structural features similar to heme. Bilirubin, which creates a yellow colour, has recently been discovered.

Carotenoids

Carotene is pigment and absorbs blue and indigo light, and that gives the amazing yellows and oranges. The amazing colours that we witness in mangoes, carrots, fallen leaves, and yams are due to the distinct forms of carotene, we can even say that the yellow of butter and various other animal fats can have a somewhat similar reason. Lycopene, canthaxanthin, and astaxanthin share a similar structure to carotene. The red tones of tomatoes, guava, red grapefruit, papaya rosehips and also watermelon suggest the availability of lycopene.

Canthaxanthin helps in the production of pink colours in flamingos. This is used to amplify the presence of red food colouring agent in captive flamingos.

Betalains

Betalains play a very important role in attracting animals, to flowers and fruits, and develops the different hues of colours. There are two sub-groups, red-violet colour produced by betacyanin and yellow to orange colour produced by betaxanthin pigments. They generally occur in a few plant families and that too every time independently of anthocyanins. Pigments that are present in beet are indicaxanthin and vulgaxanthins that are responsible for producing yellow to orange pigments. Betalains are the creator of the crimson colour in Caryophyllales class of flowers.

Flavanoids

These are the yellow plant pigments present in lemons, oranges, and grapefruits, the name “flavonoid” itself suggests the colour like “flavus” means yellow. If this is present in flowers and fruits, provide visual cues for animal pollinators and seed dispersers to locate their targets. These are present in cytoplasm and plastids. So many food items that we consume contain flavonoids such as strawberries, blueberries, cinnamons, pecans, grapes, cabbage and walnuts contain flavonoids. Anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins, and reddish-brown pigment theaflavin present in tea function to make the color. The amazing note is that there are so many other flavonoids that are only visible under UV radiation. The yellow colour of flavonoid pigments can be seen as chalcones present in flowers and organs in a plant.

This is how different pigments help in creating a distinct blend of beautiful colours in plants.

Is it possible to change the natural colour of flowers?

Have you ever thought that is it possible to create new colours in plants? And can we do that? The answer is yes by genetically playing with the chemicals and pigments this is possible to change the actual colour of the plant into the colour we wish to give that plant. This is been discovered by Robert Griesbach, a research plant geneticist at the ARS floral and Nursery plant unit, located in Beltsville, Maryland. He knows the way by which roses can be turned in to the blue colour roses. The trick is to enhance only a specific pigment and joining it with the other, create a perfect balance of pigments to create a completely new colour out of it. It is regarded just as awesome beginning scientists believe to create beautiful coloured plants in future by using gene alteration method.

There is one other procedure as well that could help in changing the already available colour of the flower petal that is to change the pH level of the anthocyanins the easiest way to do is to crush the flower petal and then add vinegar in it and after that notice the colour change. This could be done on a very small level as just an experiment to just have a little idea of the actual idea followed.

Conclusion

The different colours that we admire in plants are something that we enjoy a lot but definitely, we don’t try to dive into the question that how are these plants able to cherish this variety. Hope this article would be able to provide you with the answers to some amazing questions along with providing the temperament of thinking uniquely on simple subject matters too.

Source

Research News.