Xantomato—a new high zeaxanthin tomato

[Shule]

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/07/06/ ... -diseases/

This news article (which I found by searching for 'tomato' on Google news) tells about how researchers in Israel have developed a new tomato that has seven times more zeaxanthin than corn: '"As far as we know, this is the highest level of zeaxanthin achieved in any major agricultural crop in the world," the researchers noted.' I also thought it was interesting how it said that orange peppers are a good source of zeaxanthin.

The article also talks about the potential importance of zeaxanthin in helping to prevent neurodegenerative disease and eye damage caused by strong blue light. I'm pretty light-sensitive (to both artificial and natural light); so, of course this interests me.

Anyway, does anyone know if/when this tomato will become available in the USA? It doesn't sound like it's genetically engineered, by the wording in the article. The article shows a picture of tomatoes growing on a plant, which look like Roma tomatoes (so, maybe Xantomato is a paste, or maybe they just stuck a random tomato picture there).

[Labradors]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ful ... /pbi.13387

Check out the above if you want to make your head spin . About 3/4 of the way down, they actually mention some variety names that we know .

Linda

[Shule]

[mention]Labradors[/mention]
Well, that sure answers a lot of questions! Thanks. Very interesting.

So, Xantomato is not genetically engineered. They did make a genetically engineered tomato, too, but it didn't accumulate significant amounts of beta carotene like Xantomato does.

"We ascribe the high‐zeaxanthin accumulation in Xantomato to the unique combination of three primary mutations: HIGH‐BETA (Bsh ), high‐pigment 3 (hp3 ) and green‐stripe (gs ) that transform an existing biosynthesis pathway dedicated to carotenoid accumulation in fruit."

They later mentioned the importance the addition of the hp2 gene played, too.

I think they said they got the green-stripe gene from Nyagous, although I'm not sure; it doesn't appear to be striped. They got a certain gene from Solanum habrochaites. The HIGH-BETA gene is the same gene found in Jaune Flammée that increases beta carotene, although I'm unclear as to whether Jaune Flammée was actually used, or just Solanum habrochaites.

Unfortunately, they talk about a decrease in yields, but they think or hope the high zeaxanthin will make up for it. If they didn't use Solanum habrochaites (which they didn't have to, but which increased zeaxanthin levels some), I wonder if the decreased production would still be there.

They also state the levels of zeaxanthin in a number of fruits and such. Apparently, it also exists in scallions, even (but not in other greens they knew about).

The green-when-ripe gene (not sure of the gene name) can be used instead of green-stripe, but the zeaxanthin levels are a bit lower.

I'm guessing Xantomato is not a paste.

[Labradors]

I think I'd rather get my zeaxanthin from an orange pepper or a ton of corn than a nasty-tasting tomato. In addition to the ones you listed, they also mentioned Ailsa Craig, and none have any taste-appeal to me.

You'd think that Xantomato would be orange, maybe with a green stripe!

Linda

[Shule]

You could recreate a similar high zeaxanthin tomato with entirely different varieties. They pretty much tell you how, although you might need to do some genetic analysis to find out if you got the right traits in some cases.