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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the zesty-sauce dept.

Gene editing could create spicy tomatoes, say researchers

Spicy tomatoes could soon be on the menu thanks to the rise of genome-editing technology, say researchers. It is not the first time experts have claimed the techniques could help to precisely and rapidly develop fruits and vegetables with unusual traits: scientists have already been looking at changing the colour of kiwi fruits and tweaking the taste of strawberries.

But researchers in Brazil and Ireland say such methods also could offer practical advantages, with spicy tomatoes offering a way of harvesting capsaicinoids, the pungent chemicals found in chilli peppers.

[...] Tomatoes and chilli peppers developed from a common ancestor but diverged about 19m years ago. "All the genes to produce capsaicinoids exist in the tomato, they are just not active," Zsögön said.

Capsaicinoids: Pungency beyond Capsicum (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2018.11.001) (DX)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:58PM (14 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:58PM (#783675)

    I would prefer they develop an edible tomato.

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:06PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:06PM (#783680)

    The American finds immense pride in his diet of processed foods.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:29PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:29PM (#783753)

      The PR department tells the American, from birth, that what they have is the best that could be had, and nobody else has it as good.
      It explains a lot of things.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:30PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:30PM (#783694) Journal

    https://www.npr.org/2011/08/26/139972669/the-unsavory-story-of-industrially-grown-tomatoes [npr.org]

    If you dislike the tomatoes available to you, it probably has nothing to do with a tomato's genes, and everything to do with artificial ripening using ethylene gas.

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    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:43PM

      by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:43PM (#783701) Journal

      artificial ripening using ethylene gas.

      "Sun-ripened" is highly significant when it comes to the ultimate taste of tomatoes. We grow our own, and we experiment with different kinds every growing season; we have never found anything in a store that even comes close to tomatoes that were slow-sun-ripened. This goes for every size from cherry to "wants to be a pumpkin in its next life."

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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:32PM (9 children)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @03:32PM (#783696) Journal

    I would prefer they develop an edible tomato.

    I am terribly sorry to learn that you suffer from a mutant palette, or perhaps that your taste buds were shot off in [insert correct war here]. Either way, you should probably avoid Olive Garden.

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    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:15PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:15PM (#783709)

      If your idea of Italian Cooking is Olive Garden then you have bigger problems than not being able to taste the difference between heritage tomatoes and the those sold in the stores.

      • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:37PM (7 children)

        by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:37PM (#783719) Journal

        If your idea of Italian Cooking is Olive Garden then you have bigger problems than not being able to taste the difference between heritage tomatoes and the those sold in the stores.

        The point you completely missed was that Olive Garden serves up lots of tomato-based dishes.

        But more importantly: Found an AC Olive Garden snob! Olive Garden serves perfectly adequate Italian-American dishes. Trying to say they don't just tells normal people you're clueless and/or trying to be one of the Cool Kids (and failing.)

        Also: Don't forget to lick out your can of Chef Boyardee at lunchtime, now. And watch those edges!

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        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:51PM (3 children)

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday January 08 2019, @04:51PM (#783727) Journal

          Hard mode: Fazoli's [wikipedia.org].

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          • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:08PM

            by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:08PM (#783738) Journal

            There was another middle-grade Italian-American restaurant, y'clept Johnny Carino's (and now defunct as far as I know), we used to go to that had some decent stuff. They made a pasta sauce that was quite good, and they had a salad dressing they made with Gorgonzola instead of Bleu Cheese that was also very tasty; smooth and rich. Then again, they did that awful continental thing where they served up (very good) bread with a nasty plate of olive oil if you didn't catch the server ahead of time and ask for butter instead.

            This particular franchise instance was always packed when we went there, but apparently there were other issues, or stores elsewhere simply weren't doing as well.

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          • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:12PM

            by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:12PM (#783799)

            Fazoli's looks awful. Is it cheap? It must be cheap.

          • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:39PM

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:39PM (#783836) Journal

            Fazoli's is awful but I love it anyway (though have gone a grand total of one time this last entire year because hurr hurr low-carb diet). It's basically what happens if Olive Garden and McDonalds have mutant babies.

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        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:36PM (1 child)

          by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:36PM (#783758) Journal

          OK. But their food is only adequate in quality. I've had lots worse, but I've also had a lot better.

          That said, these days I avoid both due to starches. And they could have either improved or deteriorated...but I doubt it, as they were pretty much at "commodity level".

          OTOH, I can't really judge their tomatoes, as the only tomatoes I ate there were combined into a sauce.

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          • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:56PM

            by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @05:56PM (#783770) Journal

            I've had lots worse, but I've also had a lot better.

            Same here. One of my family's close friends had a mom-n-pop Italian restaurant; were I of a mind to be snobbish, I could turn up my nose at most Italian eateries just based on the cooking I was privileged to enjoy there until I moved elsewhere and my career began to eat me up instead. But I just like good food... I'm perfectly okay with a fairly wide range of tastes and approaches. Some of it might be legitimately poor, but some of it is just a matter of taste. No point in going all nuts about it, I guess. And there's always the next meal.

            OTOH, I can't really judge their tomatoes, as the only tomatoes I ate there were combined into a sauce.

            For me at least, there's often a distinct difference in the taste of a sauce based on the quality of the tomatoes used to make that sauce. We make our own with our own tomatoes at home here in the summer and fall; in the winter, we make do with store-bought tomatoes. Not quite up for an indoor garden. If nothing else, it's a reason to look forward to our next pickable batch.

            When we're out of town, the only practical option for us is a visit to a restaurant. And I'll try any restaurant once if someone I trust likes it and tells me so. For instance, that's how we found Johnny Carino's [carinos.com], and that was a definite win. Until the local franchise closed. Sigh.

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:10AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @12:10AM (#783907)

          You probably think McDonald's is a Scotish Resturant.