How to make tomatoes sweeter, the solution from Chinese researchers

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agriculture have shown that after removing two genes from the tomato genome, the level of glucose and fructose in the fruit increased by 30% compared to regular fruit, EastFruit reports. The work was published in the journal Nature. Christophe Rothan, a biologist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Paris, believes that the study opens up “the possibility of using the enormous genetic diversity that exists in wild species, which has been partially lost in domesticated varieties.” More than 186 million tons of tomatoes are produced worldwide every year, making this fruit one of the most valuable vegetable crops in the world, writes Newsru.co.il. Like other crops, tomatoes were domesticated by selection for traits that reflect human preferences: primarily the size of the fruit. Today, domesticated tomatoes are on average 100 times larger than their wild ancestors. This contributes to an increase in the mass of fruits on ...