2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Anthurium is the highest selling cut flower in the Hawai’i floriculture industry. The major colors in the market include red, orange, pink, white, and green. Continuous development of novel colored anthuriums will help to keep the Hawai’i industry globally competitive. One approach for the development of novel color is genetic modification of the anthurium color pathway with exogenous genes. However, anthurium is slow growing and the visualization of exogenous gene expression on spathe color takes several years from transfection to flowering. Alternatively, transient expression via Agrobacterium infiltration is a rapid method to visualize the functionality of exogenous color genes introduced to the anthurium anthocyanin pathway. Detached spathes of anthurium ‘New Era’ were agroinfiltrated with structural gene F3’5’H, or the transcription factors Rosea1, or Delila, individually or as a combination of all three genes. Control plants were treated with only the infiltration buffer and no Agrobacterium. Color change was observed at the sites of infiltration in spathes treated with Delila and the combination of F3’5’H, Rosea1, and Delila approximately 134 hours post treatment. Control spathes and spathes infiltrated only with F3’5’H or Rosea1 did not show any color change at the sites of infiltration. Additional experiments will examine the transient expression of paired combinations of F3’5’H, Rosea1, and Delila.