Modified tomato, now purple, shows favourable effect in mice

3 November 2008

A large part of the fruit people eat contains anthocyans, responsible for, for instance, the purple colour of blackberries. Tomatoes are in fact berries. The red-coloured varieties in our shops contain no, or hardly any, anthocyans. 

In an article in NRC of November 1st and 2nd 2008, this Dutch daily refers to an article in 'Nature Biotechnology' on genetically modified tomatoes. Scientists from the John Innes laboratory in the UK, Wageningen University in the Netherlands and labs in Germany and Italy succeeded in having tomatoes produce anthocyans. They achieved this by transferring 2 genes from snapdragon to the tomato genome. The picture along the newspaper article shows the fruit and skin to be deep purple.
Pulverized and added in large quantities to the diet of mice with high incidence of cancer, survival showed an increase. The article also mentions other crops modified for health reasons, like rice with extra vitamin A and vegetable oils with a modified composition. According to the article, purple tomatoes are intended for people eating little fruit and vegetables... but willing to use (powder made from) purple tomatoes.

source: NRC, 1 & 2 November 2008, Nature Biotechnology