I'm not sure the root structure is limiting for pumpkin size. And even
if it was, you can still, theoretically, make the pumpkin larger in
size while keeping the same biomass. However the genetic of fruit size
is quite complicated, as it is a systemic trait with lots of feedback
loops which we know (almost) nothing about. In such cases, traditional
"blind" breeding is much more efficient than engineering.
On Nov 8, 8:56 am, Cathal Garvey <cathalgar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Not sure you could engineer pumpkins to get any larger than they already
> do with careful cultivation, because as annuals they only have so long
> to make root structures. Perhaps you could perform some cunning
> engineering that leads each generation to make larger, better nourished
> seeds; that way, your first generation would be a normal pumpkin, but
> the next generation would grow far faster and have established roots and
> leaves earlier - giving it more time to make a nice fat pumpkin. The
> year after that, perhaps even moreso.
>
> A gourd-house consisting of vastly enlarged pumpkins; the biotech
> poster-boy that never was.
>
> On 08/11/11 13:45, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 8:24 AM, Cathal Garvey <cathalgar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Well, the two standards are Arabidopsis (grows quickly, convenient size,
> >> studied intensively) and Tobacco (really easy to engineer).
>
> > Sure, a feature some folks have talked about is having something that
> > could grow into a house or something large... poplar is fast growing
> > and a target of genetic investigation... maybe pumpkins would also be
> > interesting (a la Cinderella's giant pumpkin carriage)
>
> --www.indiebiotech.com
> twitter.com/onetruecathal
> joindiaspora.com/u/cathalgarvey
> PGP Public Key:http://bit.ly/CathalGKey
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