The First Genetically Modified Crop Has Anti-Cancer Effects

Spring is just around the corner, and home gardeners are gearing up to plant their gardens. This means sorting through seed catalogs and picking out their favorite superfoods and heirlooms. Growers will see something new this year: the Purple Tomato.

The grape-colored tomato looks otherworldly. However, its creators at Norfolk Plant Sciences have a good reason behind the tomato’s color. After working for about 20 years hacking color genes from a snapdragon flower into the plant, the genes provided the stunning pigment.

Biochemist Cathie Martin, the scientist behind the purple tomato, set out to create a transgenic tomato using DNA from a purple snapdragon, an edible flower. Martin is a biochemist who trained at the University of Cambridge.

Anthocyanins have been shown to have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. They are antioxidants that help neutralize unstable molecules in the body that damage healthy cells. The unstable molecules are also linked with aging and disease.

Martin started her process of creating the purple tomato with a basic technique scientists discovered in the 1980s. Bacteria can naturally insert their DNA into a host organism, and the host can take in the genetic material and express this new gene.

The purple tomato has as much anthocyanin as a blueberry or eggplant, according to Pumplin. For many Americans, who eat an average of 31.4 pounds of tomatoes a year (via the U.S. Department of Agriculture), the nutritional benefits are more accessible.

Genetically modified tomatoes are nothing new. The modern domesticated tomato comes from an 80,000-year-old species from Ecuador. There are about 10,000 varieties of Solanum lycopersicum, which can vary in a wide range of colors.

“There was a real push of trying to achieve food security for a lot of populaces in developing countries and usually that involved making these staple crops that grew better, such as rice and corn and wheat and things like this,”  says Kathleen Hefferon, a microbiologist at Cornell University, to NPR.

The purple tomato’s creators hope its release to gardeners could change the conversation. Lynas called Norfolk’s marketing to consumers a “stroke of genius” that could demystify the technology.

Genetically modified fruits after not the first fruits designed to help combat harmful diseases. Scientists in Hawaii wielded a transgenic papaya like a weapon against a devastating virus, their creation credited with single-handedly rescuing the island’s papaya industry from the brink of collapse. These engineered crops stood tall amidst the withering fields, becoming the heroes of papaya production.

Scientists develop Golden Rice, a unique rice variety infused with beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A that the body readily converts. Unlike traditional rice, where beta-carotene resides only in the plant, genetic engineering enables this crucial nutrient to be present directly within the grain itself.

In 2020, California-based food company Fresh Del Monte created a pink pineapple. While the pineapple looks normal on the outside, the rosy-colored inside might come as a surprise. But don’t be alarmed! There is a reason for this odd color.