The making of a blossom: a flower's evolutionary past may be read in the genes that influence its development

Natural History, May, 2002 by Enrico Coen

During one of Bashford Dean's trips to Europe, he came across an ancient box in the corner of an attic in Dijon, France. The box had belonged to an armor maker some 600 years earlier and contained parts of unfinished gauntlets. Dean remembered: "It gave me a curious feeling to take in my hands these ancient objects which seemed only yesterday to have been put in the box by their maker. I had the strong impression that if I should go through the old door near by, I would by some `Alice in Wonderland' wizardry, pass into the sixteenth century and find in the next room a veritable armorer at his table by the low window."

The study of genes can also help transport us into the past to contemplate previous acts of making. But as with all cases of imaginary time travel, the fascination does not lie simply with re-creating the past, for the past is intrinsically no more or less interesting than the present. Rather, the deepest satisfaction comes from viewing the past through the eyes of the present and contemplating how they are related through time.

Enrico Coen leads a research group in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England. With other members of his lab, he is working to unravel the genetics behind many aspects of flower development and morphology. Pictures of mutant snapdragons can be found at www.jic.bbsrc.ac.uk/STAFF/enricocoen/index.htm. Coen writes about the evolution of development--of living organisms and other kinds of made objects (from furniture to fine art)--in The Art of Genes: How Organisms Make Themselves (Oxford University Press, 1999). A believer in practicing what he preaches, Coen likes to paint, especially portraits, and is fascinated by how each step in the process of painting affects the next.