Andrea Quintana
Education: Undergraduate at Los Andes University, Bogota, Colombia, South America.
Research Topic: Studies of flower color in Anagallis monelli
In the United States and around the world, floriculture has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. There is a constant demand for new and improved ornamental cultivars, which has led to research on flower color and growth habit.
Currently, commercial cultivars of Anagallis monelli (Pimpernel) offer only two different choices of flower color: blue and orange, which are the same colors found in wild populations native to the Mediterranean region.
My graduate advisor Dr. Rosanna Freyre, has been breeding A. monelli since 1998 and has developed plants with new flower colors. Based on flower color segregation ratios and biochemical analysis of flower pigments (anthocyanins), she has proposed a genetic model for flower color inheritance in this species.
For my research project, I am using diploid populations of A. monelli to confirm this model. My study also includes biochemical analysis of anthocyanin contents using HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) and anatomical descriptions. I am also doing research at the molecular level using a PCR-approach to find genes in the anthocyanin pathway that are responsible for different flower colors in A. monelli.
