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ORANGE trees that bear fruit just one year after they germinate have been
created by researchers in Spain. Normally citrus plants take at least 6 years to
reach maturity and produce fruit. José Martínez-Zapater from the
Independent University of Madrid and his colleagues accelerated the development
of citrange orange trees by giving them a flower-regulating gene from the
well-studied plant Arabidopsis. The trees raced through their juvenile
phase and flowered in their first spring (Nature Biotechnology, vol 19,
p 263). Because citrus plants normally mature so slowly, it hasn’t been
practical to breed hybrids, as happens with other…