A new study has found how a rose and other plants like a tomato and eggplant came to get their prickles. The discovery could help engineer new thorn-free variants.
Other than being a symbol for love and romance, roses are commonly known for their sharp spikes — prickles that protrude from the stems to ward off animals looking to munch on the buds. They’re not the only plant to have this defense mechanism: Other flowers such as spider flowers or brambles, the flowering shrub responsible for raspberries and blackberries, bear the sharp points, as do certain crop plants such as tomatoes, eggplants, barley and rice.
“It’s not that there was one common ancestor that had prickles, and then it radiated out over 400 million years to all these others, and then they were lost sporadically. In fact, what it looks like is that they seem to be quite readily gained in different lineages,” Lippman said.
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