Roses are important for the cut flower, medicinal, and aromatic industries but have undesirable prickles that complicate harvesting and transportation.
Traditional breeding for prickless varieties has produced unstable mutants, so this study examines the molecular mechanisms behind prickle development in roses.
Findings show that prickles evolve from trichomes and are linked to a network of genes involved in phenolic compound production and epidermal cell differentiation, offering insights for engineering prickless rose varieties.