Hagfish may be ferociously ugly little creatures, but they can teach us much about the evolution of the vertebrate eye.

Melbourne-based novelty flower developer Florigene is planning the first field trial of its genetically modified roses carrying the company's proprietary 'blue gene' technology.

The CSIRO has revealed that part of the technology used to develop the blue rose -- unveiled last year by Japanese giant Suntory and its subsidiary, Melbourne company Florigene -- was an RNAi technique developed by CSIRO for gene replacement in plants.