Mushy tomatoes a thing of the past?

The tomato is one of the most valuable fruit crops in the world with an annual global value in excess of $50bn. But it has a tendency to soften and go off far too soon.

Now new research carried out by Professor Fraser at the Egham based Royal Holloway, University of London and Professor Graham Seymour of the University of Nottingham has identified a crucial enzyme that could solve the problem.

The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Syngenta Seeds.

It aimed to identify genes that might allow targeted control of the fruit's softening, giving it a long shelf life.

The results, published last week in the academic journal Nature Biotechnology, could pave the way for new varieties of better tasting tomatoes that will last longer on supermarket and grocery shelves.

The breakthrough has provided a spectacular finale to the academic year at Royal Holloway.

Said the campus' Professor Fraser: “Our study shows how you can precisely alter fruit ripening properties without adverse effects on the chemical composition of the fruit. In this way taste, colour, and nutritional quality are not adversely affected and in some cases enhanced.”

Professor Seymour said: “In laboratory experiments we have demonstrated that if this gene is turned off the fruit softens much more slowly but still shows normal changes in colour and the accumulation of taste."

Dr Charles Baxter from Syngenta is a particularly happy man. He said: “This discovery has relevance for the development of new tomato varieties via conventional plant breeding and is a significant step forward in understanding processes involved in fruit development, allowing more refined control of this process in plant breeding.”

He hopes that the research will now lead to wild tomato species being crossed with more conventional cultivated tomatoes as the search for a longer living tomato reaches its fruity climax.