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Searching For ‘Holy Grail’ Tomato
A nutritious tomato with great taste, aroma and color and a long shelf life is the holy grail for tomato researchers, and they’re getting closer to it. The key appears to be genes that regulate tomato firmness as the fruit ripens. The goal is a tomato that, when fully ripe and uniformly red, doesn’t leak fluids when sl
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Searching For ‘Holy Grail’ Tomato A nutritious tomato with great taste aroma and color and a long shelf life is the holy grail for tomato researchers and they’re getting closer to it The key appears to be genes that regulate tomato firmness as the fruit ripens The goal is a tomato that when fully ripe and uniformly red doesn’t leak fluids when sliced or diced A breeding line developed at Texas A&M University appears to have what it takes “The fruit firmness in the TAM-SP18-157 breeding line is superior to what was expected ” says Carlos Avila Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco “The compression peak for this tomato indicates a fruit 70 percent firmer compared to the average firmness in the Texas A&M AgriLife tomato breeding population ” Equally important is that flavor and color are retained along with the firmness trait In fact it’s as much what isn’t there as what is The breeding line lacks a liquefaction trait but has novel firmness alleles in the part of the fruit formed from the wall of the ripened ovary Avila and his research team believe the higher dry matter in TAM-SP18-157 may result in improved nutrition levels that can be maintained during shelf life Their research is funded as part of a $16 2 million USDA investment in plant breeding It focuses on dissecting the genetics and effects on human health attributes flavor and aroma related to the firmness trait “With this we hope to be one step closer to developing the holy grail of tomatoes to meet the long-standing demand of agricultural producers and consumers ” says Avila Many steps remain before the super tomato makes it to market and it won’t be TAM-SP18-157 that makes it to the shelves The genes will be used with other breeding lines “We’ve made pretty good progress developing the line and identifying the genes ” says Avila “However we’re still 3 to 5 years from release ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Carlos Avila Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center 2415 E Hwy 83 Weslaco Texas 78596 ph 956-969-5636; Carlos Avila@ag tamu edu
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