Author Topic: Tomato Genome  (Read 1859 times)

murahilin

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fruitlovers

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Re: Tomato Genome
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2012, 07:17:17 PM »
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18253577

I wish i could believe that article! Why am i so skeptical? Maybe because the industry has never been interested in good taste. Tomatoes are one of the most highly selected and bred of all plants. There are over 40,000 open pollinated tomato varieties, from that lot lots could have been grown that already have excellent tastes and keeping qualities. No need to do any genome mapping to achieve those results. I worked at Seed Savers Exchange farm in Iowa one summer. We grew out over 100 varieties of OP tomatoes. So many were so excellent tasting and colorful that you wanted to eat them straight out of hand, like you would a peach. Too bad most people will never get to taste any of them. Scientists really have most of us hoodwinked into thinking that biotechnology is necessary to achieve a good tasting and keeping tomato. Old timers know very well that they already abound.
Oscar