German scientists have created purple tomatoes with beet pigment

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Germany have created purple tomatoes using genetic engineering techniques. To do this, they implanted in the plant the genes responsible for the biosynthesis of betanin, and activated them in ripe fruit. It is noted that betanin is usually produced not by tomatoes but by red beets and is used as a natural food coloring. This type of genetic engineering techniques helps to produce substances in specially designed plant production systems. This will play an important role in the future, especially for drug production. Thus, the main purpose of the study was not to create a new variety of tomatoes, but rather to improve engineering methods. Even betanin required a lot of planning and adjusting the plants to achieve the desired level of synthesis. The researchers inserted three genes needed for betanin biosynthesis into tomatoes, and introduced several genetic switches to activate the inserted genes only in the fruit and ...