Scientists from the United States have created a new tomato cultivar with an edited genome. It looks like a bunch of grapes.
Thanks to this feature, not only farmers, but also residents of megacities will be able to grow it, agroportal.ua reports with reference to the CSHL website.
The main goal of this new study is to create a wider range of crops that can be grown in urban settings or in other places not suitable for plant growth, according to Zach Lippman, professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
These new tomato plants have a CRISPR-edited genome. Mutations in the genes made it possible to obtain plants that slow down their growth earlier than usual, begin to bush strongly, and their fruits are collected in compact clusters, somewhat similar to cherry or grapes. The new variety is fast-ripening, – after 40 days, the fruits can be eaten.
Where it leads
According to Zach Lippmann, the peculiarity of tomatoes allows them to be eaten almost on the basis of cultivation, which makes them environmentally friendly. This means that the new variety will reduce the so-called carbon footprint by unnecessarily transporting the fruit. This is important in the context of climate change.
Lippmann also stressed that NASA had time to show interest in new tomatoes. Mainly due to their compact size and maximum number of fruits per plant.
Recall that earlier we told what 3 products according to scientists slow down aging, and we also wrote about a group of scientists who discovered an unexpected property of walnuts.
Photo: cshl.edu