Personal Celery Plant Genetic Dwarfing for Waste Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Celery plants are often too large for single consumers or small households, leading to waste and immature plants with poor flavor, as current strategies either remove outer leaves or harvest at an immature stage, resulting in less tasty produce.
Innovation Solution
A celery plant of the species Apium graveolens L. dulce with a genetic trait that results in a shorter petiole and total plant length at maturity, obtained through introgression from seeds deposited with NCIMB under accession number NCIMB 41902, allowing for a smaller, more convenient, and tastier product without the need for leaf removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If celery plants are harvested at an immature stage to reduce size, then the plant size is reduced, but the flavor quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by modifying the genetic parameters of the celery plant through introgression of specific genes (such as the dwarfing gene) to alter the plant's growth characteristics. This enables the plant to achieve a smaller mature size while still allowing full maturation of flavor compounds, thus resolving the contradiction between size reduction and flavor quality maintenance
2Reliability
If normal-sized celery plants are provided to maintain flavor quality, then the flavor quality is improved, but the waste increases due to unusable parts
Solution Approach 1:
By changing the genetic parameters of the celery plant through introgression, the patent creates a plant variety with reduced overall size but maintained petiole quality. This reduces the proportion of unusable parts (leaves, root) relative to the edible petiole, thereby reducing waste while preserving flavor quality
3Quantity of substance
If outer leaves are removed to provide smaller portions, then the portion size is reduced, but the labor requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the problematic feature of excessive plant size through genetic modification while retaining the desirable edible parts. By introgressing dwarfing genes, the plant naturally produces a smaller overall size with an appropriate proportion of edible to non-edible parts, eliminating the need for manual removal of outer leaves and reducing labor requirements
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a celery plant (Apium graveolens L. dulce) carrying a genetic trait that leads to a shorter petiole and a shorter total plant length at mature harvest stage as compared to a celery plant not carrying the said genetic trait, wherein said genetic trait is as present in the genome of plants grown from seed of which a representative sample was deposited with the NCIMB under accession number NCIMB 41902.