Tomato Tomahto
Scientists are the most curious and imaginative people of the human race. They chase the unknown and are constantly willing to accept new ideas. Because of this desire they are extremely good at doing what they do; which is helping the rest of us better understand the unthinkable.
Over the last 4.5 billion years many facts have been articulated such as; the sky is blue, cross country shorts are too short, and it takes 17 weeks to grow a tomato. Recently one of these facts has been shifted and tested and sorry but, it’s not the shorts. Recently scientists Professor Joyce Van Eck and Sarika Gupta developed a method of “transforming” a tomato. Transforming is the process that involves inserting DNA into the tomato genome and growing a new plant. The process of transforming begins with using a soil bacterium called Agrobacterium tumefaciens to insert a new segment of DNA into the cells of tomato seedling tissues. These new cells are transferred to a medium where they can then grow into a miniature new plant, transferred to a root induction medium where they grow roots, then planted in soil and hardened in the greenhouse. This process, on average, took 17 weeks. Then Professor Joyce Van Eck and Sarika Gupta tried adding Auxin- a hormone that promotes tomato growth- to the mediums. This astonishingly cut 6 weeks off of the original growth time. 11 weeks total for completely cloned tomatoes.
As of right now this discovery is mostly benefiting the scientific community, rather than any agriculture movements. Research on the genes of tomatoes are now able to be sped up and more projects can be happening at once because of the fast growth rate. Eventually there hope is that this discovery will be able to do more for tomato farming as is said here by Van Eck, "We're looking at the genes and gene networks involved in stem cell proliferation, meristem development, flowering, and branching with the end goal being that maybe genes that we identify in tomato, which is strictly being used as a model, might help us understand what can be done to increase yield in other crops."
It was interesting to see that tomatoes were such an ideal model for plant research. Once Van Eck made this recent discovery it must have triggered many more experiments concerning tomatoes now that the time requirement was cut so drastically! I was slightly confused as to how this discovery was not made sooner considering former our knowledge of auxins. The combination of the transforming process and auxins must have been the untested trick.
This interested me at first because I was curious to see the ethics involved. I wondered if these cloned tomatoes would be safe to consume and wouldn’t negatively affect the environment. Since the motive for this discovery was not for agricultural advances it makes me believe that they will research it thoroughly before making it available for consumers.
-Sara H
My favorite sentence is the one about tomatoes being an ideal model for plant research. If there is one thing that has helped science in leaps and bounds it would be the very concept of a biological model. Mendel had pea plants, Arthur Kandel (famous brain researcher) had a type of sea slug with a super simple nervous system, and there's of course the classic mouse model. There's also the popular Zebrafish and Drosophilia fruit fly. And not to ramble or anything but Yeast and E. Coli have such a well researched library of their biology that we can nearly design them from scratch.
ReplyDeleteHaving a model whether in silico, in vivo, or in vitro is a vital first step to understanding complex genetic interactions!
Tomatoes are an interesting plant with a very amusing history. In the past peoples though tomatoes were poisonous after being brought back from the new world to the old. However it would prove quiet the opposite as many places in the world eat tomatoes or tomatoes products often. Interestingly enough after reading your article to know that tomatoes have great potential in research as well is an interesting fact. Overall your blog post was great and i cant wait to see where else the scientific research into plant organisms goes in the future.
ReplyDelete-Jacob Carnation
Tomatoes really have come a long way haven't they?! I eat them almost everyday and the variety of tomatoes adds to their many other fascinating characteristics. I hope that the scientist are able to further their research while maintaining the overall moral of this precious fruit. And, I'm glad you liked my post:)
Delete-SLH
I am curious to see if the tomato has any "side effects". Would it taste the same? Would it still be safe to eat? C.W.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these tomatoes, being a perfect clone, would taste as a normal tomato should. I cannot, however, assume that they would be safe to eat. They are furthering their research in hopes of proving them to be safe for consumption.
Delete-SLH
This is a well written article overall. I love the running shorts and the humor put into it. It made it easier to read. I also love that someone has such a love for tomatoes and the agriculture business that they researched how to speed up the process of growing tomatoes. It would be interesting to see if it effects the tomatoes in any way.
ReplyDelete-Will
I have always enjoyed writing and I agree, a little humor makes things much more enjoyable. Thank you for your comment!
Delete-SLH (the author)
You mentioned that this is really only beneficial for the scientific community thus far. Do you see it impacting everyday social life some day? J.RYAN
ReplyDeleteYes I do. GMO's are already an extremely controversial topic so this research could very well had to the hype. But I don't see what could be harmful or inhumane about producing more tomatoes if its not hurting the plant itself. This act of fastening the production of plants could easily become the 'norm' in the future.
Delete-SLH
GMOs have been under a lot of debate whether or not it is ethical. We all have our different views on it, but I believe that scientist should be experimenting with foods and transforming them into a better version of themselves. Not just for better food quality but how it effects the scientific community. Advancements like this allow other scientist to learn from and then make better or use part of that procedure in other area.
ReplyDeleteJH
I agree GMOs are always under a lot of debate. I also think that there are many people out there that don't realize how many GMO they eat on a regular basis. I totally agree that scientist should use foods for experimenting.-D.B.
DeleteThis was a really cool article in which we use science to help another field of study. A scientist was able to cut off 6 weeks on the growth time of a tomato. This could be remarkable to help the agriculture area especially as the United States is building on farm land. Another cool thing he was able to do was how he cloned the tomato. This just shows how science is always progressing and in the future, it could lead to some great discoveries.
ReplyDeleteNP
It is a cool process of the scientist cutting down the grow time of a tomato. My question is, will there be any side effects that could harm those that consume the tomato? Is this a completely healthy and edible tomato?
ReplyDeleteNP
Scientist have yet to answer this question but we will know as soon as they find out because it will either result in tomato production staying the same or rapidly increasing.
Delete-SLH
With the way culture is right now concerning GMO's, I wonder if these tomatoes fall under that category? I bet one reason why this technique hasn't caught traction in the agricultural sector is because of the stigma behind GMO's, and probably value as well. You could make a lot of cheap GMO tomatoes, and sell them for cheap - but if people aren't willing to buy them, and prefer buying more expensive "organic" branded tomatoes - there would be no push to use this process. It's super cool to know that it can be done, and used for the future if needed.
ReplyDeleteR.T.
The fact that these tomatoes are exact clones, rather than a mix of two fruits or a fruit pumped with steroids, I think the public will be more accepting. Maybe they could start a test run and see if people will still buy them and if the profit is not worth the cost of research than maybe that will tell them whether to continue or not.
Delete-SLH
This is cool. It would be awesome to be able to produce more tomatoes with more efficiency. I wonder if something like this could be done to cut down on the growing time of other plants. One problem with this is that food genetically identical to it's parent can be easily wiped out. The Irish Potato Famine was caused because the asexually reproducing potatoes were wiped out.
ReplyDeleteT Anderson
What you have brought up is very interesting. I wonder if the researchers have put this into account as they test the tomatoes for consumer safety. Because even if we are safe to eat it is it worth all the time and money of research to develop a technique that will eventually wipe out the new tomatoes?
Delete-SLH
Aren't most vegetables and plants all genetically modified already? I think it would be great if they could really shorten the maturing time of a tomato plant.
ReplyDeleteSkyler H.
They already have shortened the time for it to mature but now it is up to the scientists to affirm that they are safe to consume. I'm sure that if they can prove that they are than this technique will be widespread through agriculture.
Delete-SLH
I think it is a great discovery that science can do all this but also I don't think it is right for nature that we harm it this way and turn it into whatever we want because in the end it can come back to harm us in ways that we haven't even thought about.
ReplyDeleteSteph S.
This seems like a cool article to read. I did not know that auxin could speed up the rate of growth in a tomato plant. It almost cut the growth rate in half! -EH
ReplyDelete