How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips
Abstract The beauty of tulips has enchanted mankind for centuries. The striped variety has attracted particular attention for its intricate and unpredictable patterns. A good understanding of the mechanism driving the striped pattern formation of broken tulips has been missing since the 17th century...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Communications Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07507-z |
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| _version_ | 1832571418466844672 |
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| author | Aidan A. Wong Gustavo Carrero Thomas Hillen |
| author_facet | Aidan A. Wong Gustavo Carrero Thomas Hillen |
| author_sort | Aidan A. Wong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The beauty of tulips has enchanted mankind for centuries. The striped variety has attracted particular attention for its intricate and unpredictable patterns. A good understanding of the mechanism driving the striped pattern formation of broken tulips has been missing since the 17th century. It has been known since 1928 that these patterned tulips suffer from a viral infection by the tulip breaking virus. Here, we present a mathematical model to understand how a virus infection of the petals can lead to stripes, thereby providing a possible explanation of a 350 year-old mystery. The model, which describes the viral inhibition of pigment expression (anthocyanins) and their interaction with viral reproduction, incorporates a pattern formation mechanism identified as an activator-substrate mechanism, similar to the well-known Turing instability, working together with Wolpert’s positional information mechanism. The model is solved on a growing tulip petal-shaped domain, whereby we introduce a new method to describe the tulip petal growth explicitly. This work shows how a viral infection that inhibits pigment production can lead to beautiful tulip patterns. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fdb081d1f25d4e319badfc835d6c0174 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2399-3642 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-fdb081d1f25d4e319badfc835d6c01742025-02-02T12:37:16ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Biology2399-36422025-01-01811710.1038/s42003-025-07507-zHow the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulipsAidan A. Wong0Gustavo Carrero1Thomas Hillen2Department Physics, Faculty of Science, University of AlbertaCentre for Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca UniversityDepartment of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of AlbertaAbstract The beauty of tulips has enchanted mankind for centuries. The striped variety has attracted particular attention for its intricate and unpredictable patterns. A good understanding of the mechanism driving the striped pattern formation of broken tulips has been missing since the 17th century. It has been known since 1928 that these patterned tulips suffer from a viral infection by the tulip breaking virus. Here, we present a mathematical model to understand how a virus infection of the petals can lead to stripes, thereby providing a possible explanation of a 350 year-old mystery. The model, which describes the viral inhibition of pigment expression (anthocyanins) and their interaction with viral reproduction, incorporates a pattern formation mechanism identified as an activator-substrate mechanism, similar to the well-known Turing instability, working together with Wolpert’s positional information mechanism. The model is solved on a growing tulip petal-shaped domain, whereby we introduce a new method to describe the tulip petal growth explicitly. This work shows how a viral infection that inhibits pigment production can lead to beautiful tulip patterns.https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07507-z |
| spellingShingle | Aidan A. Wong Gustavo Carrero Thomas Hillen How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips Communications Biology |
| title | How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips |
| title_full | How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips |
| title_fullStr | How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips |
| title_full_unstemmed | How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips |
| title_short | How the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips |
| title_sort | how the tulip breaking virus creates striped tulips |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07507-z |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT aidanawong howthetulipbreakingviruscreatesstripedtulips AT gustavocarrero howthetulipbreakingviruscreatesstripedtulips AT thomashillen howthetulipbreakingviruscreatesstripedtulips |