Scientists crack tomato gene sequence to improve nutritional value

As the name suggests, tomato has long been a staple food for Westerners. Its rich nutritional value and unique aroma make it not only edible as a fruit, but also perfectly integrated into cooking, making people salivate. More than 300 scientists from 14 countries recently published a groundbreaking study in the well-known international journal "Science", stating that they have cracked the sequence of tomato genes. This will help understand the process of fruit ripening and cultivate tomatoes with better taste and nutritional value.

A multinational research has completely cracked the genetic sequence of tomatoes, and in the near future many different varieties and flavors of tomatoes will appear on the market.

French newspaper Le Monde recently reported that scientists from China, the United States, Britain, France, India and other countries spent a full nine years to successfully sequence 35,000 genes in the "Heinz 1706" tomato variety, which is a major breakthrough in biological research. Through gene sequencing, botanists can easily find the performance differences between different varieties of tomatoes and enhance their immunity to environmental disasters.

More importantly, since tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, eggplants, peppers and other food and economic crops belong to the same family, the Solanaceae family, and the genetic differences between them do not exceed 8%, identifying the key genes that make tomatoes ripen will be of great help in solving the problem of food shortages in the future.

According to statistics, the consumption value of tomatoes in the United States is 200 million US dollars (about 6 billion Taiwan dollars), and each person in France consumes 14 kilograms per year. In Greece and other southern European countries around the Mediterranean, the amount is as high as 56 kilograms. It can be said that people in European and American countries can hardly survive without tomatoes. Therefore, scientists will use the complete results of this study to carry out a series of genetic modifications on tomatoes in the future to improve the taste and nutritional content, making it a high-value-added food crop.