![]() Jonathan Pollack, left, is shown with his son and co-author Andrew. The sequencing analysis showed that there's one very specific mutation in a gene that supports the formation of carotenoids, the pigment that turns vegetation an orangish hue. After carefully preserving the flowers and bringing them back to the lab, they ran a genomics analysis known as RNA sequencing, which revealed two important things: which genes are active in the flowers, and any active genomic oddities - like something that could desaturate a bright orange petal. Jonathan and Andrew's part-horticulturist-part-detective quest took them through a series of steps, starting with a bit of field work - sampling poppies from Stanford's campus (with permission of course). To sort out the mystery of the mutant poppy, Jonathan took a page from his lab, employing tactics he usually uses to analyze cancer genomes. Andrew Pollack is the lead author, and Jonathan Pollack is the senior author. And although plant biologists and poppy enthusiasts alike have known that poppies can be white or yellow, the Pollacks' finding is the first to show how, at a genetic level, that happens. Now, detailed in a paper that appears in Scientific Reports, the father-son team has done just that, finding a specific mutation that drains color from the poppy petals and leaves them white. "I'm a genomics guy, and Andrew was exploring bioinformatics at the time as a computer science major, and we thought, 'You know, I bet we could figure this out.'" ![]() ![]() "It just struck us as very unusual that there was this sort of mutant-looking flower growing among the normal orange, golden variety."īoth scientists by training, Pollack and his son, Andrew got to talking. "My son, who is a student at Stanford, and I will sometimes head up to campus together, and for a couple years now, we've noticed this odd variation in poppy color, where they're completely white, or sometimes yellow," said Pollack, MD, PhD. Flanking the roads leading to Stanford's campus, where Pollack works as a professor of pathology, are splashes of the California state flower's famously brilliant hue - save for a small handful of poppies that are oddly robbed of their color. Every spring, Jonathan Pollack's commute to work gets a little brighter and a little oranger.
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