Petunia’s Waxy Cuticle Regulates the Plant’s Sweet Smell

The thicker the flower petals’ cuticle, the more fragrance compounds the plant releases, according to a recent study.

| 3 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
3:00
Share

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, IVAN MURAUYOU

The paper
P. Liao et al., “Cuticle thickness affects dynamics of volatile emission from petunia flowers,” Nat Chem Biol, doi:10.1038/s41589-020-00670-w, 2020.

Many flowers emit sweet scents to lure pollinators. Those fragrant molecules can, however, cause damage if they begin to collect in the flowers’ cells.

To escape into the air, a petunia’s scent molecules, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), have to travel through their cells’ cytoplasm, cross an inner membrane and then the cell wall, and finally move through a waxy cuticle. Scientists long thought that diffusion drove the release of the molecules, but in 2015, computer simulations revealed that VOCs can’t diffuse out of flower cells quickly enough to prevent internal damage to the plant.

In follow-up experiments to find out how the fragrance molecules might escape the plants, Purdue University biochemist Natalia Dudareva and colleagues found that when the flowers opened and became pungent, ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Ashley Yeager

    Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

Published In

February 2021

Restoring Reefs

New approaches could accelerate development of outplanted corals

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
Collage-style urban graphic of wastewater surveillance and treatment

Putting Pathogens to the Test with Wastewater Surveillance

An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide