Create new varieties of tomatoes thanks to wild plants

Scientists have developed a new tomato plant by modifying the genome of a wild tomato.

This new technique could allow scientists to combine the genetic diversity of wild plants with genetic qualities determined by breeding generations.

People have cultivated crops for thousands of years, breeding crops to produce good quality seeds - increasing hardness and higher productivity. But plant breeding does not always produce good results.

Many modern plant varieties lack genetic diversity as a result of breeding. This process also leads to the loss of properties related to the taste and aroma of the products made.

In an effort to address excessive breeding-related issues, scientists have turned to the CRISPR-Cas9 gene modification technology . The researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 to modify the genome of a wild tomato plant, genetic coding insertion is responsible for favorable traits, as determined by plant breeding research. Modern planting.

Many modern plant varieties lack genetic diversity as a result of breeding.

The result is a new plant, a tomato variety with many modern features - but still maintains the genetic properties created by wild plants.

JörgKudla, a biology professor at the University of Münster, Germany, said in a press release: 'This new method allows us to start over and start a new domestication process. In doing so, we can use all the knowledge of plant genetics and plant domestication that researchers have accumulated in recent decades. We can preserve the genetic potential and special valuable properties of wild plants and at the same time create the desired characteristics of modern plants in a very short time. "

Researchers in Germany, the United States and Brazil have teamed up to modify "Solanumpimpinellifolium" , grape tomatoes, a wild species found in Ecuador and Peru. Because this type of tomato is very small and has low productivity, it cannot become a popular crop.

Scientists have changed six genes of wild plants, allowing new tomatoes to have many beneficial properties. The tomato plant produces more and bigger fruits, nearly the size of a cherry.Gene transformation also brings more oval-shaped tomatoes, less likely to crack when it rains. Scientists can also produce tomatoes with higher lycopene levels, a valuable antioxidant.

The team described their success in a new paper published in Nature Biotechnology.

Kudla added: 'This is a decision innovation that we cannot achieve with any conventional breeding process with tomatoes currently cultivated. Lycopene may help prevent cancer and cardiovascular diseases. So, from the viewpoint of health, we have created a tomato variety that can be of higher value than conventional tomatoes and other vegetables, because these vegetables contain only lycopene in very high quantities limit".

Trying to preserve the genetic qualities of wild plants through reproduction will be a long and time-consuming process, but with CRISPR-Cas9, scientists can produce a crop. new in a short time.

The researchers say the new technology could allow biologists to produce new plants from wild plants that had never been used by humans.