In Argentina we usually say often that this or that question "were before". In this case, it is worth to say: "Tomatoes were before." And that’s why, an international team of scientists carried out a work aimed to recover the flavor of the tomatoes of yesteryear. And were able to identify thirteen molecules appreciated by consumers that have been lost in the majority of commercial varieties of today. These molecules can be replaced without impairing the other characteristics of tomatoes, say researchers in the journal Science , where today present their results.
"The work is motivated by the complaints of consumers that the tomatoes modern already do not know as the traditional; it does not know to tomato as it was before," declares Antonio Granell, the co-author of the research, of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants of Valencia (CSIC-UPV), reports the newspaper La Vanguardia.
This loss of taste, explains Granell, is a side effect of the search for qualities business in the tomato. From several decades ago will come looking for varieties of tomatoes that are resistant to pests, bright colours, sizes homogeneous and sufficiently strong to be able to transport and store without estropearlas. These qualities are appreciated by producers and consumers have been enhanced at the expense of taste.
The loss of taste was not premeditated, researchers warn. Should be to the taste of the tomato depends on a multitude of molecules are difficult to analyse, in particular the volatile organic compounds that affect the smell and taste perception. Faced with this difficulty, producers have focused their efforts on features which are easier to analyze and control such as size or color.
The development of modern techniques of genomic analysis, however, allows to analyze how they have modified the genes of tomatoes in the last few decades. With these techniques, a research team led from the University of Florida (USA), and in which they have been involved scientists from China, Israel and Spain, has sequenced the entire genome of 398 varieties of tomato. The fruits analyzed, ranging from tomatoes to wild that remain in America until the commercial varieties more and more global.
in Addition, the researchers searched for molecules related to taste such as sugars, acids and volatile compounds.
And were able to identify thirteen molecules that influence the taste and that have been reduced in modern varieties. "Because the volatile compounds are active at very low concentrations, it should be possible to substantially increase its content in the fruit with minimum consequences on productivity," write the researchers in Science.
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"We are correcting what has been spoiled over the last half a century to return it, to be guided by the taste, to the situation in which it was a century ago," says Harry Klee, director of research, in a statement released by the University of Florida. "We can make the tomatoes from the supermarket have a taste significantly better."
In Argentina with a team of local researchers led by Fernando Carrari, who belong to the Research Center in Veterinary Science and Agriculture technology (INTA), participated a few years of scientific research, which he managed to decipher the genome of the tomato. Have been working on the subject since more than 10 years ago. Mariana Conte is a researcher of her team and said to Clarín that "there was a process of domestication of many years where the commercial varieties of tomato have been homogenised, genetically, to the detriment of the taste and nutritional quality," he says. And he adds that "through cross-breeding, it could be back-to-back, to the classical genetics of the tomato, trying to retrieve the characteristics which interest us". Conte adds that in one of their research they discovered that there are varieties of tomatoes that are grown in the NOA (argentine Northwest), which are of local production and have h igher contents of Vitamin E. The problem is that this type of tomatoes do not have a good life post-harvest and are less resistant to diseases.
The tomatoes in Buenos Aires have been selected on the basis of features of interest to producers, such as for example the number of days of shelf supports, which have a much longer useful life. "The selection that has been done was with the interest of the producer, to optimise its gain, and not in function of a better quality for the consumer," adds Conte.
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The scientist clarifies that the tomato seeds that are marketed are the same all over the world. "A part of our studies is precisely focused on the epigenetic control, that is, to elucidate mechanisms that produce variations in the same genotype depending on the environment in which it is sown. For example, the same seed of tomato is not the same thing planted in Buenos Aires and in Mendoza," he adds.
Mariano Winograd, president of the NGO "5 a day" which promotes the consumption of vegetables, agrees that the tomato "lost its flavor as a result of a decision, the decision to prioritize a retail channel. In Argentina, you should double the consumption but we’re not going to achieve if you do not satisfy the consumer as to the taste," he admits.
On The Silver there is a case to witness the revaluation of the flavor of the tomato. This is the group of producers "Tomato Platense" which is a type of tomato that was grown for years in the area of The Silver, and that a group of researchers and teachers of the University of la Plata, after the advance tomato technology, rescued among the few producers that still grew.
And beyond that it is a reality that tomato suffered major changes since the decade of the 80′s, when it appeared the long-life tomato, Winograd provides two important data and that in the short-term can change the experience of consumers: “First, people save bad: the tomato is not saved in the refrigerator. Second, you must eat well red, when it is well red.”
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