Mysterious sunflowers in Van Gogh paintings

The strange appearance of some sunflowers in Vincent Van Gogh's paintings is not a consequence of mental illness. Researchers have found evidence that this is a picture of the sunflower flowers are mutated.

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According to Live Science , typical sunflowers tend to have a center of brown sunflower seeds, a round yellow petal, but sudden sunflowers appear to have a double petal number with long, slender petals. and the center part is minimized. One of these mutant flowers is called the Teddy Bear , a sunflower but looks like a giant dandelion.

Sunflowers in Van Gogh paintings.

Researchers have also found a genetic mutation 'to be responsible' for these differences. In addition, researcher John Burke, of the University of Georgia, said that the finding, in addition to providing interesting features from a historical perspective, could also provide economic benefits when developing trends. Positive mutation.

Gardeners can both retain unique flower varieties and provide these flowers for artists. Fortunately, there are many varieties of mutant sunflowers that are not too difficult to grow.

Teddy Bear sunflowers.

To understand the genetic basis of this difference, Burke and his colleagues began by blending popular sunflower varieties and wild sunflower varieties. The results they obtained from these models have shown that there is a single dominant gene 'responsible' , called HaCYC2c gene .

Burke could not explain exactly which combination could lead to a copy of the mutant gene that produced the green stamens in Van Gogn's famous series, but he confirmed that the HaCYC2c gene plays a big role.

The study is published in PLos Genetics.