Thanks Karen, that was an excellent response to the purple tomato. I do grow a cherokee purple which is an heirloom. It does have a very deep red inside, which i think is why it's called purple.
Hello Karen, You say you are not a geneticist, but a nutritionist.
Well I am a geneticist, actually a plant breeder, and can tell you that anthocyanin is present naturally in tomato and can be bred into commercial tomatoes resulting in large increases in anthocyanin content. While the tomato you mention is GMO, there are several commercial varieties of tomato with enhanced purple pigmentation that are not GMO and safe to eat. See https://phys.org/news/2023-04-purple-tomatoes-high-anthocyanin-content.html and see:
Thank you. Based on the sources it appears heirloom purple tomatoes do not contain anthocyanins but some others that are naturally bred do. So the question becomes why was a GMO purple tomato even created? Is it necessary to have a tomato with greater anthocyanin concentration? And how when eating away from our own table, will we be able to distinguish the GMO tomato from the real deal?
Yes, I don't know why the GMO route was done. You will have a problem in eating out and not knowing the source of the purple tomato, whether it's GMO or natural origin. Fortunately, most vegetables are still non-GMO in the US and worldwide. Most GMO are in the large grain crops and often tied to herbicide resistance.
Thanks Karen, that was an excellent response to the purple tomato. I do grow a cherokee purple which is an heirloom. It does have a very deep red inside, which i think is why it's called purple.
Based on the first link in kobreeding’s comment, the heirloom ones do not contain anthocyanin.
Hello Karen, You say you are not a geneticist, but a nutritionist.
Well I am a geneticist, actually a plant breeder, and can tell you that anthocyanin is present naturally in tomato and can be bred into commercial tomatoes resulting in large increases in anthocyanin content. While the tomato you mention is GMO, there are several commercial varieties of tomato with enhanced purple pigmentation that are not GMO and safe to eat. See https://phys.org/news/2023-04-purple-tomatoes-high-anthocyanin-content.html and see:
https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/133/2/article-p262.xml. Also see this reference: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2019.00133/full.
Thank you. Based on the sources it appears heirloom purple tomatoes do not contain anthocyanins but some others that are naturally bred do. So the question becomes why was a GMO purple tomato even created? Is it necessary to have a tomato with greater anthocyanin concentration? And how when eating away from our own table, will we be able to distinguish the GMO tomato from the real deal?
Yes, I don't know why the GMO route was done. You will have a problem in eating out and not knowing the source of the purple tomato, whether it's GMO or natural origin. Fortunately, most vegetables are still non-GMO in the US and worldwide. Most GMO are in the large grain crops and often tied to herbicide resistance.