Edited tomato combats vitamin deficiency

Researchers from the John Innes Centre and the Quadram Institute in the United Kingdom have initiated one of the first clinical trials with genetically edited foods to evaluate whether biofortified tomatoes can increase vitamin D levels in the body. The ViTaL-D study will recruit 76 participants with low vitamin D levels, who will consume a daily portion of tomato soup for three weeks, aiming to verify the impact on the blood of the active form of this vitamin, essential for bone, muscle, and immune health. Vitamin D deficiency is a global problem, affecting about one in five Britons in winter and nearly one billion people worldwide, especially vegans, the elderly, and people with little sun exposure. Since plants generally do not contain vitamin D, the team at the John Innes Centre developed tomatoes whose genes have been edited to accumulate provitamin D3, which turns into vitamin D3 after exposure to sunlight or UVB, without altering the appearance, growth, or productivity of ...