A new, genetically modified purple tomato may hit the grocery market stands

1. 2022-09-18 at 7:53 PM UTC

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   https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/17/business-food/purple-tomato-gmo-scn-trnd/index.html
   
   

   It tastes like a tomato, smells like a tomato, and even looks (mostly) like a tomato. There’s just one catch: It’s purple.
   
   The USDA has approved a genetically modified purple tomato, clearing the path for the unique fruit to be sold in American stores next year.
   
   …
   
   To engineer the purple tomatoes, the scientists used transcription factors from snapdragons to trigger the tomatoes to produce more anthocyanin, creating a vibrant purple color.
   
   Martin and her colleagues published the first results of their research in 2008 in an article in Nature Biotechnology.
   
   The results were “stunning,” she said. Cancer-prone mice that ate the purple tomatoes lived around 30% longer than those that ate normal tomatoes, according to the study.
   
   Martin said there are “many explanations” as to why anthocyanin-rich tomatoes may have health benefits. There are “probably multiple mechanisms involved,” she said. “It’s not like a drug, where there’s a single target. It’s about them having antioxidant capacity. It also may influence the composition of the microbiome, so it’s better able to deal with digestion of other nutrients.”