Blue for you or Pretty in Pink?
About week ago I posted some pictures of my Hydrangeas that were just starting to bloom. http://goo.gl/Gn47h I noticed that on the same plant, some of the flowers were blue and others were pink. I knew that pH played a role but I found out that it is actually the aluminum in the soil that make the blue pigment possible. So for ScienceSunday curated by Allison Sekuler Rajini Rao Robby Bowles and me, I had to dig up more info to post along with pictures from today.
When the pH is acidic, aluminum in the soil, mostly from clay, allows a metal complex of aluminum and a anthocyanin, named delphinidin 3-monoglucoside, to form. After the pictures, the first figure is of the aluminum complex. The next figure shows various blue flowers with sections cut revealing the pigment cells and protoplasts.
Although the next two figures are about Morning glories, they were too interesting to pass up. A certain ScienceSunday co-curator always has her eyes on certain channels. Similar to the previous figure, there is a cross section-cut revealing the pigmented cells. However, the paper and figure go on to discuss how the Morning glory does not have metal complexation. The petal color changes during flower opening due to pH changes which were measured in the second part of the figure. The final figure show the purported ion channel mechanism.
Plants can be beautiful. When you throw in a dash of science, they can be beautiful and intriguing.
Edit I forgot to add that a lot of insects leave hydrangeas alone. Why? Aluminum toxicity – win – win for us gardeners.
Sources:
Kumi Yoshida , Mihoko Mori and Tadao Kondo
Nat. Prod. Rep., 2009,26, 884-915
DOI: 10.1039/B800165K http://goo.gl/VGlZH
So is it Men At Work – Blue For You (1983) or The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink ?
#ScienceSunday #ScienceEveryday
June 24, 2012
Nicely rendered, Chad Haney .
June 24, 2012
You do know that NHX1 was cloned and named by my first graduate student, Chad Haney ? We found it in yeast and predicted that it was the elusive Na+/H+ exchanger that the plant folk were looking for. Indeed, the purple gene in morning glory was found to be NHX1. This gene not only alters flower color, it also regulates acidity (in grapes..therefore wine) and salt tolerance (target of bio-remediation in droughty areas). The human orthologs play a role in autism and X-linked mental retardation (XLMR).
Gorgeous blooms, +100 for your garden!
June 24, 2012
P.S. Nice addendum on insects and aluminum toxicity, good to know!
June 24, 2012
Thanks for the follow-up, Rajini Rao .
June 24, 2012
So how many demerit credits do I get?
June 24, 2012
Ever the opportunist, Chad Haney! You should have made a virology post today 😉
June 24, 2012
Chad Haney I think you deserve demerit badge for good gardening, Scout.
June 24, 2012
I can’t take all of the credit. My wife does a lot of the work. She takes care of all of the potted plants.
June 24, 2012
Great post Chad Haney, like you I knew the colour was dependent on soil pH but did not know it was related to aluminum, or that insects avoided it!
June 24, 2012
Color Buddhini Samarasinghe you are in the USA now. 😉
June 24, 2012
You mean Amercia, Chad Haney ? 🙂
June 24, 2012
Grrrr you two….I still stubbornly say ‘colour’ and I STILL label all my experiments dd/mm/yy 😛 Nya nya nya!
June 24, 2012
Early days still, Buddhini Samarasinghe . Just you wait 🙂 We Amercians will win you over.
June 24, 2012
I do dd/mm/yyyy because it makes sense and because of a certain German, Christian Wietholt
June 24, 2012
Just avoid those UK journals. Then you’ll learn.
June 24, 2012
Rajini Rao The worst is actually when it comes to cooking. Wow. Cups of flour, sticks of butter, quarts of milk, pounds of potatoes, ounces of cream…argh! Whatever happened to good old grams. And Celsius!
June 24, 2012
I have two brains: one for Amercia and the other for the rest of the world (including lab).
June 24, 2012
We left those in the Old World LOL
June 24, 2012
Amercia ?
June 24, 2012
Yes, #Amercia, for a better Amercia
June 24, 2012
‘Twas an internet sensation, William McGarvey .
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/05/30/mitt-romneys-amercia-no-laughing-matter
June 24, 2012
Rajini Rao Ya got me good with that one, Rajini…
FACE PALM
June 25, 2012
Chad Haney I do prefer the ISO standard nowadays YYYY-MM-DD. I think if do DD.MM.YYYY it might be better to use a period as a separator sign to avoid confusion.
June 25, 2012
Sorry for the confusion, I like 25 June 2012. If I do numerals, then 2012-06-25.