Responding to the Unexpected

The researchers measured the amount of the pigment enzyme’s messenger RNA (mRNA) in the plant and found it greatly reduced.

That made sense—reducing the amount of mRNA for the enzyme reduced the amount of pigment made.

But how could introducing extra copies of the gene reduce the amount of mRNA?

A dark purple petunia with 9 curled line segments next to it and a purple and white petunia with 4 curled line segments.