Service

Service and Technology Development

Orchidaceae is one of the largest families of flowering plants. The current identification indicates that this family may consist up to eight hundred genera or thirty thousand species. The special traits of many species have been appreciated with commercial interests. Mostly, ornamental species in the genera of Phalaenopsis, Cattleya, Oncidium, Cymbidium, Vanda, Dendrobium and Paphiopedilum represent as major darlings in the floral market. Their flowers with eye pleasing colors, adorable scents and eternally changeable sizes and patterns are typically appreciated. Some specific species in the genera of Dendrobium, Anoectohilus, Bletilla, Gastrodia and culinary Vanilla would carry medicinal or culinary tradition in many societies worldwide. We could deem orchids to be closely associated with human civilization from the ancient to the most recent time. 

In the worldwide markets, hundreds and thousands of commercial cultivars have been generated by the conventional ways through the enthusiastic breeders either are professional or amateur. However, with the demand of novel traits, the recombinant DNA technology is called to the play on the R&D level. Flower color is a critical factor to the eye pleasing matter. In 2013, the blue Phalaenopsis orchids created by the research team at Chiba University in Japan were exhibited at the 11th Asian Pacific Orchid Conference. In 2016, the white Oncidium orchids created by a research group at National Taiwan University in Taiwan were exhibited in Taiwan International Orchid Shows. Predictably, similar creative Bio-Art fashions can be achieved using such platform for years to come. In terms of modifying flower shapes, by genetically manipulating particular members of MADS-box gene family may precisely modify the shapes of sepal, petal, lip or combinations. In addition, flowering control of orchid is a crucial criteria for nursery demands world-wide, especially for Phalaenopsis orchids which require cool temperature (15~20℃) at night for a 28 days period in order to induce spiking of inflorescence. There are two aspects of flowering control. One is to control flowering to match the production programs. The other is to prevent spiking when exporting to foreign growers for later blooming. How to precisely turn on or off the flowering machinery may rely on manipulating gene expression on corresponding flowering controlling genes such as orthologs of CO-like, FT or LEAFY etc. The studies by subjecting flowering gene to genetic transformation in orchid will confirm their biological function. Other features of transformation may provide resistance to harsh environment or diseases to overcome the loss derived from ill logistics or poor culturing conditions. 

The Orchid Transformation Core Facility in ABRC was officially open in 2015, which is located in the branch of Tainan. There are two missions for this core: (1) creating horticultural novelty and (2) proving functional genomics. The service is restricted to the members of ABRC or their collaborators. We currently provide white flower Phalaenopsis spp. including Phalaenopsis V3, P. Aphrodite and P. equestris as hosts for service. The particular adopted protocol (Hsing et al, 2016, Bot Stud) using protocorm as starting material for Agrobacterium mediated transformation demonstrates advantageous short time for selection process, which was reduced down to seven months over typical 2~3 years by other protocols. The other merit is the high transformation rate up from the average 1~3 % of other reports to the highest of near 9% in several cases observed in this core.