Biology Articles » Agriculture » Four-Leaf Clover Gene Found, Researchers Say
Four-Leaf Clover Gene Found, Researchers Say
Four-leaf clove.Image credit: Crop Science Society of America
A four-leaf clover is rarely expressed. Mapping and identifying the gene responsible for this trait can lead to breeding new cultivars that express four leaves in stead of the typical three leaves.
Clover plants typically bear three leaves and four-leaf types are desired. Scientists recently reported a gene that is ascribed to encode for the four-leaf types. The allele for the three-leaf trait masks the expression of the four-leaf trait. Environmental factors also strongly affect the expression of this highly desired trait. Now, genetic markers are available, which make the detection of the gene responsible for this particular trait possible. Researchers reported that they have identified this gene together with the other leaf traits in the white-clover genome.
Other genes identified were those responsible for leaf traits such as the red fleck mark and the red midrib, which is a herringbone pattern that runs along the center of the leaflet and with a strong red color. The determination of these genes also resolved the century-old question if these traits are controlled by one or more separate genes.
It turns out that the white clovers have many genes that affect the color and shape of the leaves. The leaf patterns are strikingly beautiful and can be used as an ornament in flower beds. As such, Wayne Parrott, the senior researcher at the University of Georgia remarks, "This is a great time to be involved in white clover breeding. We now have the tools to make it easier to breed important traits in this species which has historically proven to be a challenging plant to work with. In addition, we can hasten the development of new white clover cultivars bred for a variety of uses by screening new generations of plants for traits of interest before they even reach the field trial stage, significantly reducing the time and resources needed for new releases of white clover."
His research team, together with the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma, worked using the modern molecular genetics tools and classic breeding strategies in order to understand the leaf trait inheritance in this plant. Through their research, the long mystery of how these leaf traits have been inherited and why white clover has so many rare leaf traits have been given a new light. Researchers continue with their studies with the intent to develop a new cultivar expressing these desirable leaf traits.
Prepared and adapted by Vicki Mozo from a press release from Crop Science Society of America entitled "Scientists Find Four-Leaf Clover Gene" in https://www.crops.org.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
Four-Leaf Clover Gene Found, Researchers Say - Biology Online
red-headed clover « rachel's blog
a decision made on my hands and knees same number, new name
red-headed clover
Monday, August 9, 2010
r8chel happy things 4 Comments
A couple weeks ago I found a four-leaf clover at the park one morning and then helped the kids find it themselves. Since then, Magen will often stop and look for four-leaf clovers, and she has actually managed to find a few. She even stuffed one of her lucky clovers into the handle of her scooter.
This evening as she and I were walking at the park, she told me that she looks for the little white flowers, because that means that there is clover nearby. I explained that the white flowers are actually clover flowers, and that the three-leaf and four-leaf clovers she finds are the clover leaves.
“But why aren’t there many FOUR-leaf clovers?” she asked.
“It’s kind of like how there are lots of kids with brown hair and lots of kids with blonde hair, but there are only a few kids with red hair.” I tousled her red-haired ponytail. “And the lucky kids with the red hair are like the lucky four-leaf clovers.”
She giggled and took my hand in hers.
I love that girl.
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4 Comments (+add yours?)
Wilmer
Aug 10, 2010 @ 08:07:03Great story. Thanks for sharing it. Yes, children sometimes spill milk but more often are sources of amazement and great joy!
rostock
Aug 12, 2010 @ 22:27:18You were made for this, totally! I am so glad you found a husband and family. No doubt you shine as a wife and mom.
r8chel
Aug 13, 2010 @ 10:48:38Wilmer: Children are a lot of fun, but there are moments when they’re just lucky they’re cute.
Ha!
rostock: I’m glad too. Very, very glad.
luckycharm4me
Aug 20, 2010 @ 15:20:43lovely story!4 leaf cloverare like red heads… hard to find, and lucky to be….LOL.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I Ran Over A Four Leaf Clover
It's just so hot all the mowing is getting behind and I know many other peoples are too. At first our excuse was gas prices and that was so nice we will just now blame it on the heat. I do a certain part though to keep my husband from mowing every flower and bush I have and I cannot do it except mornings while he prefers the sun. It took an hour to get the red off my face even at that with a cold cloth, sun is not my friend! We have a pretty huge yard too and it doesn't seem fair to make him do it all, it takes a fair amount of time. I hear thunder now, it always comes as soon as you mow to make it grow back faster! I am here though to talk about four leaf clovers, good luck charms, superstitions and their affect on us.
I have mentioned before how lucky I am finding four leaf clovers but so many things of superstition I just feel is so wrong. Four leaf clovers are probably the least of the problem superstitions, nothing bad happens as far as I have heard and they are rare. Probably harmless fun if you don't really put any faith in them.
I was mowing this morning and I saw a beautiful one with all fours out evenly and I felt an “Oh no!” as I ran right over it. It is hard to find one so perfect I could see quite clearly that far away. I even went back to see if it was lucky enough to have been missed. But no, and I wonder will another grow in its place?
I feel really bad about superstitions, I think they are really, really wrong. I went probably the first sixteen years of my life avoiding stepping on a crack; that might break my mother’s back. Well maybe I was mad at her one day but I stepped on them all and found out that wasn’t true.
Isn’t it so silly and I am sure everyone has at least one and they are so very aggravating. Don’t walk under a ladder. Well I learned that one right after I got married when my husband painted with his dad sometimes, especially. Well there were many incidences with me and those ladders if he was painting for us or I was around his house when he was painting, watch out. Really though, can I blame that on the ladder? He could hardly see and was almost deaf all the years I knew him. So eventually I would go under ladders on purpose as long as my father-in-law was not around.
I always thought if your palm itches you were going to get some unexpected money. No, it has to be the left palm, and don't scratch it, with the right one itching meaning you will meet someone new, shake hands with a stranger; take your pick.
Do we all think just a little what we can just put off when it is Friday the thirteenth? The good thing about that now is, I never know the date! I don’t even put my little cursor down in the right corner every day to see. What does it matter? I know the month and the day of the week, that’s good enough.
Mirrors? I have broken so many I wouldn’t have a chance. I am sure I have said somewhere in a story the horseshoe I put over my door fell on my head.
Black cats walking in front of you or crossing in front of your car is suppose to be bad luck. We know that is idiotic but wouldn’t we rather it didn’t happen? And what about those black cats squooshed in the road?
What about all that salt Rachael Rae tosses over her shoulder for good luck? We can’t get away from it!
Knocking on wood for good luck, but doesn’t that go with something else happening? I can’t remember. One is like if you say the same thing as someone else at the same time and lock little fingers with each other and make a wish, it will come true. That’s great for children but with adults it would be sort of a who, what, when and why, wouldn’t it? And your spouse better not be around!
The umbrella not to be opened in the house? Now I can tell you for a fact you aren’t going to open it and start out the door, no one does that. That one got started by an astute housewife not wanting people bringing their wet umbrellas in and making a mess for her to clean up!
Well we all know someone so many centuries ago started most of this nonsense and it has been changed and built upon and I am really amazed how many people live by all these things and then some; even more amazed I still let some of them bother me somewhat.
As Christians though (and some using that as Jesus crucified on a Friday!) we know we should only say, this is not of the Christian faith and let it go. Good luck charms, good witches, voodoo, love potions, magic spell; none of that is pleasing to God and we know that. I suggest at any time one of these come up and bother us we simply thank God for the truth he has sent us and say get thee behind me satan! If you will notice I never spell satan with a capital letter. He is a god to many but he is not my God.
Don’t miss the video for a little fun. God doesn’t mind us having fun as long as it isn’t something he can’t be invited to, and the marriage bed is sacred, I think meaning God does not go there leaving those happenings up to you. Just thought I’d throw that in. I don’t know why.
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Is your Anixiety today caused by Friggatriskaidekaphobia: fear of ...
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Black cats, broken mirrors, ladder underpasses and Friday the 13th are just Stupid-stition… I mean Superstition. The only power they have is the power you give them!! So, don’t let today “worry” you at all… Many people give Friday the Thirteenth too much power!!
Ya, granted they did make many movies about it with the same name… but Freddy is only dreamed up… I would not sleep on that.
Friggatriskaidekaphobia the Friday the 13th or triskaidekaphobia – the fear of the number 13 does affect a great many people and even businesses!! I bet you have never seen the number 13 in “any” elevators you’ve been in that had more than 13 floors. The Good News that should lower your anxiety level is… TODAY is the lone “Friday the 13th” of 2010!!
It’s just another day… Now where is my rabbit foot and lucky 4 leaf clover?!
Here are a few facts I found:
To mark the occasion, we’ve drafted a list of 13 facts about today’s superstitious date by Heather B: (Friday The 13th Superstitions)
- According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a “Friday the 13th” superstition before the 19th century.
- The British Medical Journal writes that there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents when the date is Friday the 13th.
- Every year has at least one Friday the 13th, but no more than 3.
- The longest period that can occur without a Friday the 13th is fourteen months.
- SAW the ride opened at Thorpe Park in the UK on Friday March 13, 2009. The ride was marred by “teething problems” for the first few days after it opened.
- The independent horror flick Friday the 13th was released in May 1980, grossing $39.7 million at the box office, despite being produced with a budget of only $550,000.
- The Athens Olympic Games opened on Friday, August 13, 2004.
- Famous people born on Friday the 13th include: Samuel Beckett (April 13, 1906); Margaret Thatcher (October 13, 1923); Fidel Castro (August 13, 1926); and Steve Buscemi (December 13, 1957).
- Tupac Shakur died on Friday, September 13, 1996.
- The Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crashed in the Andes mountain range on Friday October 13, 1972.
- There are 13 steps to the gallows, 13 knots in a hangman’s noose, and the guillotine blade falls 13 ft.
- Many hospitals have no room 13, and most airports don’t have a Gate 13. Apartment buildings often do not have a floor 13.
- 2012 has 3 Fridays that fall on the thirteenth… Oooooh Nooooooo.
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“Is Friday the 13th Anxiety Today Caused by Friggatriskaidekaphobia? [NEW Cartoon]”Melissa Mashburn at 7:54 am on August 15th, 2010Cool Facts!
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Last reviewed: 13 Aug 2010
Janet's World: A mystical yard of lucky charms
Janet's World: A mystical yard of lucky charms
Janet's World
By Janet Gilbert11:39 p.m. EDT, August 14, 2010
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Is good luck something you can amass and store up for future use, by simply acquiring large numbers of items that are widely regarded as good-luck charms?I certainly hope so, because we in Janet's World are positively stockpiling good luck around here. And I'm talking tasteful good luck, not tacky good luck. For example, when you queue up at my residence early Monday morning for the opportunity to touch a good-luck Gilbert on his or her way to work, you will not have to wade through distasteful piles of dingy rabbits' feet or rusty horseshoes. But you might just unknowingly tread upon our mystical yard of four-leaf clovers. And that, on its own, might bring you good fortune.
It all started at the beginning of this summer, when my husband was standing out in the backyard at 5:40 a.m., waiting for our dog to accomplish his morning deliverable. How undignified. But it is precisely in these ordinary moments that true greatness often reveals itself with unprecedented verve: While my husband was practicing his management-by-walking-around technique with his dog, he suddenly bent down and plucked not one, but two four-leaf clovers!
He quickly came inside and presented them to me."Can you believe this?" he said, placing the two four-leaf specimens on the kitchen counter.
I could not. I had not even had my first cup of coffee, and yet I got a surprising jolt from the vision of two four-leaf clovers at 5:42 a.m. Truthfully, we did not immediately start talking about playing the lottery, or betting on a horse, or heading off to Atlantic City next weekend to feed the slots. I suppose we have never measured our luck by money, but by the people in our lives — our children, family members, friends, neighbors, teachers, coworkers and so on. And we certainly haven't experienced a dearth of clover-like influence in those relationships, so evidently what we have going on right now is a cosmic surplus of four-leaf luck, a boon, a treasure trove of blessings.
My husband and I spent a few minutes conferring about whom we might give the clovers to, until we looked at the clock and realized we ought to get ready for work, because, as luck would have it, we had almost frittered away our entire breakfast time. First, though, my husband pressed the clovers perfectly flat, between wax paper sheets in the largest book I own, the esteemed Harrap's Shorter French-English Dictionary. Though I no longer use it, I cannot part with this massive dictionary because it consistently allowed me to express myself in convoluted ways during my junior year in college in France. In fact, it just now helped me construct the following phrases in French, which I have directly translated for your enjoyment:
"The excessively stout dictionary of two languages, huzzah! It is of use to us again, as the repository of clovers celadon with the four mutant leaves."
I simply can't open this dictionary now without coming upon a four-leaf — or even that rarest of the rare, five-leaf — clover.
Since that morning a few short weeks ago, we have collected more than two or three four-leaf clovers a week from our yard. Is it our lucky dog's random fertilizing techniques that are resulting in this bumper crop of karma? What does this mean?
The cynical might say that it means our yard has had some adverse reaction to pesticides and that it's more of a doomsday sign for the environment than a harbinger of happiness for us.
But I know better. And so I'm spreading the good luck, starting with this column, which, if you fold it just so, is perfect for flattening a clover of your own. All you have to do is look around, in the most unexpected places of your life.
Copyright © 2010, The Baltimore Sun
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