Lifelong Acacia Challange

[Auxin]

Heres a challange for the truly devoted (and patient) ethnobotany enthusiast.

It has been found that (at least in some plants) the seed produced from pollen that was dessicated and stored at 3 C for 7 to 10 days minimum produce plants with an increased level of cold tolerance (presumably because the pollen that produces cold intolerant plants is itself cold intolerant).

So my challange to you is to perform cross pollination with cold treated pollen in Acacia maidenii, grow the seeds, after a few years kill 75% with cold and when they get old enough to reproduce repeat the process, and repeat, and repeat, etc. until you obtain a cultivar that can withstand snow!

Shamans, ethnobotanists, and many others will speak your name with deep and genuine reverence for generations to come. In a hundred years you may even become a religious icon in colder areas 'The one who brought us the sacred wattle' 'the bringer of the plant' 'the enlightened purvayor of the flesh of the gods' 'bodhisattva wattlemuni.'

Hey, it could happen.

[Guest reville]

Or we could just figure out how to grow Acacia phlebophylla

I thought id read that cold tolerant lines could be selected much quicker by subjecting cell suspension cultures to adverse conditions then regenerating cold tolerant lines

or/

Protoplast fusion between phlebophylla and a related hardier species?

or/ the controversial topic of GE

Transform maidenii with the 'ice-minus' gene from pseudomonas - they did it to strawberries to make them frost tolerant in california

[Auxin]

Whats this, do we have a volunteer?

Common reville, you can do it.

And yes, I chose the easiest (all be it the longest) method because most people cant genetically engeneer trees and grow them from single cells on agar plates.

I did a little genetic engeneering in high school, so I know how EXTREMELY expensive it can get. I'm glad I didnt have to pay for the materials I used to make E. coli ampacillin resistant!

[Guest reville]

we'll see.Ill at least add it to the list First id want to see how this Acacia phlebophylla thing turns out as it is a much more desirable species and it must already have a degree of cold hardiness far gretare than maidenii.

GE expensive? i guess. but the main costs are in isolating and characterising the gene.

and the tricky bits would be the regeneration of whole plants from single cells.

Either way its the least ethical course of action and if you could do that, youd already have the technology to try the fusion technique

Re your original idea - I always thought acacias were mostly self pollinating.

I think if youwere to start this project should collect seed to start with from the coldest locations it is found naturally and work on crossing these accessions

[Auxin]

"I always thought acacias were mostly self pollinating."- reville

Many plants are, thats the tedious and stressful part of cross pollination. You gotta get to the flower in the hours before it starts producing its own pollen, carefully castrate the male bits, dust it with your pollen, and tie a nylon stocking over it to protect it from other pollen that might happen to arrive from elsewhere.

Thats how I do it with the capsicum genus anyway.

Note- girls look at guys strangely when guys ask for any spare nylon stockings they might have laying around, and they never believe that its for plants