Scientists Create Tomatoes Genetically Edited To Bolster Vitamin D Levels (theguardian.com) 87
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have created genetically edited tomatoes, each containing as much provitamin D3 -- the precursor to vitamin D -- as two eggs or a tablespoon of tuna. Outdoor field trials of the tomatoes are expected to begin in the UK next month, and if successful, could provide an important new dietary source of vitamin D. The tomato plants were created by making tiny changes to an existing tomato gene using an editing technique called Crispr-Cas9. "It's like a pair of molecular tweezers, which you can use to precisely snip out a very small fragment of the gene to enhance a desirable trait in plants a lot quicker than traditional breeding process, and without introducing any foreign DNA from other species," said Jie Li at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, who led the research.
In this case, their focus was an enzyme found in tomato plants that normally converts provitamin D3 into cholesterol. By altering this enzyme, the researchers managed to block this pathway, meaning provitamin D3 accumulated in the tomatoes' fruits and leaves. They calculated that the amount of provitamin D3 in one tomato fruit -- if converted to vitamin D3 -- would be equivalent to levels present in two medium-sized eggs or 28 grams of tuna. To convert this into active vitamin D3, the fruit would still need to be exposed to UVB light, or they could potentially be grown outdoors, something the researchers plan to test in upcoming field trials. The research was published in Nature Plants. "Unlike GMOs, the tomato plants do not contain genes from other organisms and could theoretically have been created through selective breeding -- albeit much more slowly," notes the Guardian. Therefore, they could be allowed under a proposed genetic technology (precision breeding) bill aimed to allow gene-edited plants to be treated differently to genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
In this case, their focus was an enzyme found in tomato plants that normally converts provitamin D3 into cholesterol. By altering this enzyme, the researchers managed to block this pathway, meaning provitamin D3 accumulated in the tomatoes' fruits and leaves. They calculated that the amount of provitamin D3 in one tomato fruit -- if converted to vitamin D3 -- would be equivalent to levels present in two medium-sized eggs or 28 grams of tuna. To convert this into active vitamin D3, the fruit would still need to be exposed to UVB light, or they could potentially be grown outdoors, something the researchers plan to test in upcoming field trials. The research was published in Nature Plants. "Unlike GMOs, the tomato plants do not contain genes from other organisms and could theoretically have been created through selective breeding -- albeit much more slowly," notes the Guardian. Therefore, they could be allowed under a proposed genetic technology (precision breeding) bill aimed to allow gene-edited plants to be treated differently to genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
vitamin salsa (Score:2)
Vitamin Salsa is gonna be a big seller at Whole Foods. These organic tomatoes had precision breeding and are Non-GMO.
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Vitamin D in the Tomatoes, Vitamin E in the Onions, Vitamin K in the Coriander, and boosted Vitamin A.
A Salsa of Death if you get greedy and pig out.
Re: vitamin salsa (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, it's you that's full of shit.
Transgenic -- relating to or denoting an organism that contains genetic material into which DNA from an unrelated organism has been artificially introduced.
The tomato plants were created by making tiny changes to an existing tomato gene using an editing technique called Crispr-Cas9. "It's like a pair of molecular tweezers, which you can use to precisely snip out a very small fragment of the gene to enhance a desirable trait in plants a lot quicker than traditional breeding process, and without introducing any foreign DNA from other species," said Jie Li at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, who led the research.
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Correct, that's what transgenic means. Congratulations, you've managed to read an article. However, a genetically modified organism, which is the shit that the original line quoted was full of, does not require transgenic manipulation to be genetically modified. Which isn't surprising since someone from the Grauniad wrote the original line. Now, it is POSSIBLE, giving them an entire bargeful of benefit of the doubt, that this is a case of the editors fucking things up because they think it sounds better ins
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"Unlike GMOs, the tomato plants do not contain genes from other organisms" is in fact full of shit.
That line is correct So what is your problem?
Re: vitamin salsa (Score:4, Insightful)
it is not, as it mistakes the part for the whole.
"gmo" are not necessarily transgenic, as gp just explained. so these tomatoes are not "unlike gmo", they "are gmo", just not transgenic gmo.
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GMO is a synonym for transgenic GMO.
Everything else no one is calling GMO.
It is only /. pedants who want to nitpick, without even having a clue about the meaning of the words they nitpick about.
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You may understand it that way, but I didn't. And I'd need evidence before I'd believe that most people who have an idea as to what the term means have your more restricted interpretation.
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GMO is a synonym for transgenic GMO
now you are just doubling down on a logical error. whatever "people says", that's ideology, not rational thinking. whenever your ideology separates you from logic i wholeheartedly recommend questioning that ideology, regardless of how "everybody else calls things".
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That line is correct
No it isn't. That is NOT what "GMO" means.
GMO means "genetically modified organism". It does not mean "has DNA from another organism".
These modified tomatoes do not meet the USDA's definition of "organic" nor will they avoid the EU restrictions on GMO.
TFA is peddling nonsense.
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GMO means "genetically modified organism". It does not mean "has DNA from another organism".
That is exactly what it means. Because those organisms are the ones the anti GMO people are against.
And your sentence is not the sentence I quoted, but another one. What a dumb ass way of answering to someone.
nor will they avoid the EU restrictions on GMO.
Of course they will avoid that. WTF is wrong with you: thy are planted in the UK atm, technically not EU, but they have the same laws for the next ten years.
You are
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Actually, what I'm afraid of is patented food crops. I'm a bit dubious about "chicken DNA in tomatoes", and think it needs to be evaluated at the same level of caution as a drug, but not really opposed to it. (The inserted DNA is likely to be doing something quite different in the tomato than it did in the chicken. And they also need to check on what the hybrids do...not a simple matter.)
But it's the patented crops that have been driving farmers to suicide.
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But it's the patented crops that have been driving farmers to suicide.
Can you provide a citation for a farmer driven to suicide by seed patents?
Most farmers buy seeds from seed companies so the patents are irrelevant to them.
The "Roundup-Ready" patents expired years ago.
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It's quite frequent in India. But if you don't want to search, you could look at this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
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The link is about the Bt cotton patent which expired years ago.
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That the patent expired is irrelevant. So is the particular crop. The problem is patented seeds driving farmers to suicide. I'm more concerned when it's about food crops, but that's not the only place it happens.
That was one link out of an entire selection of search results. I picked it because the source was more reliable than many.
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those organisms are the ones the anti-GMO people are against.
Not true. The anti-GMO movement is nowhere near as sensible as you presume. For instance, Greenpeace is adamantly opposed to any use of direct manipulation of DNA. Greenpeace opposes Golden Rice, which is GMO but not transgenetic.
Can you name a group or prominent advocate who opposes only transgenetic modifications but accepts other CRISPR modifications?
No one cares about a genetic trait you could have achieved with selective breeding
The USDA cares. So does the EU. So do Greenpeace, the American Organic Farmers Association, and many other groups.
Re: vitamin salsa (Score:1)
That's what I said you fucking moron.
Not in UK apparently... (Score:2)
From TFA:
"It's a nice example of the use of gene-editing technologies to make a very specific change to a crop," said Prof Gideon Henderson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Such "precision-edited" crops are the subject of a bill, set out in the Queen's speech, which will allow gene-edited plants to be treated differently to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - the cultivation of which is governed by strict European rules that the UK hopes to move away from.
"It's an example of the type of product that could pass through traditional GMO legislation, but would do so very slowly under the present regulatory environment and could take decades to navigate the system," said Henderson.
Unlike GMOs, the tomato plants do not contain genes from other organisms and could theoretically have been created through selective breeding - albeit much more slowly.
Such crops would be allowed under the proposed genetic technology (precision breeding) bill, which the environment secretary has predicted will be passed into law this year, potentially enabling the first gene-edited foods to be available by 2023.
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well, they look good but it is still not clear that they are healthier. for starters, excess vitamin d is a health problem too, but other than that you can't really rule out that this modification has absolutely no other side effects. this will have to be tested.
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you can't really rule out that this modification has absolutely no other side effects.
The same is true for conventional tomatoes. Every generation has a few dozen random mutations. You can't rule out that they have absolutely no side effects either.
The only safe option is to refuse to eat.
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The only safe option is to refuse to eat.
Vegans come fairly close to that don't they?
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Not close enough!
Bada boosh
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nope, not even remotely. actually vegans would need to eat *more* as they tend to consume less energy dense food, but that cancels out with the fact that most people in developed countries (where veganism is a thing except india) overeat. the problem never was energy, but nutrients (aka, like provitamin d3 to stay on topic). so with the increased variety, while eating the same amount a vegan tipically obtains more than enough energy from food to sustain him/herself without becoming a fat butt, but gets a ri
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bullshit. i mean, yes, but not the same. albeit possible, random mutations should statistically produce changes nowhere near as drastic as this targeted editing. this change completely neutralized one enzyme suppressing a chemical process that has been working for millions of years in tomatoes and in which accumulation of provitamin d3 is just one aspect. note that this particular research hasn't even measured the levels of provitamin d3, just "calculated them", let alone tracing the full implications of th
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There are already commercially grown GM crops that are healthier than conventional varieties.
Golden Rice [wikipedia.org]
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Tomatoes don't have significant fat value shit for brains. D3 is fat soluble and needs a certain amount of fat to be present in the digestive system in order to be absorbed by the human body. So anyone eating one of these tomatoes without an accompanying fat source is not eating the more healthy tomato because it does jack fucking shit for them.
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You missed the fact that what these tomatoes produce is the precursor to vitamin D. You'll still need the sunshine to activate it (though they're talking about getting the tomatoes to produce actual vitamin D by growing them outside...but they haven't checked that this will work).
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Sunshine causes photoaging of the skin, and skin cancer. The best strategy is to always wear sunscreen and get vitamin D from diet [skincancer.org].
The argument that we should get vitamin D from unprotected sun exposure because "it's what we evolved to do" fails to take into account the fact that our evolutionary ancestors lived half as long as we do now. They died of other causes before the skin cancer had time to kick in. These days, however, that is not the case, and so since we live much longer we actually do need to
I wasn't looking for Vitamin D in my tomatoes. (Score:2)
I was looking for something to go between the lettuce and the bacon.
Never made it past the summary - is this strain patented? If so, I wonder how long until it starts cross-contaminating unlicensed crops (or is this strain optimized for airponic/hydroponic farming)?
I'll leave it for someone else to raise the usual questions about the risks of food created by manually tweaking the genetic structure instead of brute-force grafting chunks of genetic material. I'll assume they're safe for human consumption.
Re:I wasn't looking for Vitamin D in my tomatoes. (Score:4, Interesting)
Tomatoes are mostly self-pollinating, especially those grown for the commercial market. And farmers buy from seed producers, who grow their seed-as-the-end-goal strains away from usual places of food production (so last year's food strain doesn't interfere with this year's seed strain).
It looks like they are hoping others will take the modification and put it into their already patented (non-GMO/non-modified) strains, so it's not really a strain that is being released. But that was from a quick look at the article. Safe for human consumption, yes.
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At least it's not yet tomacco [fandom.com]!
We don't know the impacts of this on digestion when you mix things they impact each other not just within the plant but with other foods. Like how alcohol does a lot to make greasy unhealthy foods not as harmful... but also over time it alters the brain...
Furthermore, these sloppy gene editing techniques do a lot of extra damage that has to be compensated for which may go unnoticed... or what other changes occur to the plant? That extra Vit D production doesn't just come out
Re: I wasn't looking for Vitamin D in my tomatoes. (Score:1)
Do you actually believe that shit or did the nongmoproject pay you to post this?
https://mobile.twitter.com/Dav... [twitter.com]
Though you have to admit, they really know how to fuck with and rob their fellow progressives.
Re: I wasn't looking for Vitamin D in my tomatoes. (Score:2)
You know people have been patenting crops since the 1930s right?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/k... [forbes.com]
https://mobile.twitter.com/Dav... [twitter.com]
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Wow, really stupid shit regarding government control has been happening since that authoritarian dickweasel FDR was elected and by hook and by crook expanded the scope of the federal government's power. Quelle surprise.
RDA (Score:4, Informative)
Or, the FDA could just correct the RDA, which was set based on a statistical error [nih.gov]. It needs to be increased by a factor of 13, from 600 IU to 8000 IU.
This, BTW, is the reason one finds D-3 pill bottles labeled "5000 IU" with the odd instructions of "take one every other day". It's so the FDA doesn't get after them, even though everyone knows the FDA's RDA is based on an error.
Re:RDA (Score:4, Informative)
Dunno about that:
To put those doses in context, 600 IU is the recommended daily amount of vitamin D for adults through age 70; 800 IU is recommended for people above age 70; 4,000 IU is considered to be the upper end of the tolerable intake level; and 10,000 IU is considered a megadose, well beyond what is typically advised, says Dr. Manson.
Via: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/too-much-vitamin-d-may-harm-bones-not-help [harvard.edu]
My own supplement is 1000 IU, recommended once a day.
Re: RDA (Score:2)
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A lot depends on your exposure to sunlight and your diet. If you're a dark-skinned person working indoors in high latitudes in the winter, without taking supplements you're almost certainly deficient in vitamin D. My blood tes
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Yup, well within healthy ranges. I race bikes tho, so probably get more sun than many in the PNW.
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IIRC 10,000 IU is 1mg.
It's not LSD-25.
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Which is especially useful (Score:3)
Since vitamin D comes in just about every food product these days.
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They must not be eating food
Re: Which is especially useful (Score:2)
No, they're pasty slashdotters whose only source of light comes from a computer monitor rather than the sun.
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No, they're pasty slashdotters whose only source of light comes from a computer monitor rather than the sun.
The problem with the sun is that it doesn't have a brightness setting. I'll go outside when the sun adds Alexa support.
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They must not be eating food
They're eating plenty, as evidenced by the gross tonnage of the obesity problem.
Notice no one uses the word "sustenance" anymore when selling "food". There's a reason for that.
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That's because it comes in shit like skim milk or white rice. D3 is FAT SOLUBLE, which means unless you eat a fatty source along with the vitamin, like whole milk, fatty meat, nuts, or vitamin capsules that use an oil as a carrier, your body can't carry it beyond the intestinal wall.
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So you're saying vitamin D in tomatoes is useless, because tomatoes aren't fatty?
Re: Which is especially useful (Score:2)
Mostly useless. People eating them on a fatty burger or any other meal with a significant fat source will gain some benefit from them, but most of the people buying them because they are "healthy" will not be doing so.
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No they are not.
It is the 2022, and not 1922.
Get a damn clue.
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https://bmcpublichealth.biomed... [biomedcentral.com]
https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
etc. etc.
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If you think I have vitamin D deficits, eating modern food ... sorry, then you have some serious mental problems.
You first links is about south Asia, hence: it is simply false, can not be true. So much fish (and eggs) we eat there, impossible to have a vitamin D deficits. And: sun ... lol.
Stupid American propaganda ...
But do they taste like sh*t? (Score:2)
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I never knew what I was missing until I tasted some home grown cherry tomatoes from a friend that he grew from heirloom seed strain, that hadn't been refrigerated.
Apparently even just refrigerating tomatoes destroys a lot of their flavour.
I never tasted such a rich, full and delicious tomato flavour before in my life, and the pasta sauce I made from some of them was completely different too.
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Pretty much all genetically modified tomatoes taste like shit compared to heirlooms. It doesn't even matter if they are grown home, and harvested and ate right off the vine, they still taste like tasteless watery crap compared to heirlooms. A large part of the reason is due to trying to get them to become disease resistant.
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This message brought to you by the Heirloom Tomato Advisory Board.
So? (Score:2)
What does it taste like?
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Chicken.
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What does it taste like?
If it's anything like most mass produced tomatoes, probably flavorless mush.
Uh. ok (Score:2)
Or, and I'm just thinking out loud here, you can eat healthy and get plenty of sunshine.
Crazy, but it might just work.
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I, too, shunned the daystar in my youth, but it's not our enemy.
I like to think of it more as a cruel mistress.
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It literally gives you skin cancer. Pass.
Re: Uh. ok (Score:2)
Think that's bad, just wait until you learn about the dangers of DHMO.
It kills countless people every year, and they still put it in everything!
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My red-headed wife had melanoma; fortunately it was removed before it spread too far beyond the original tumor.
Not as serious, but almost everyone in my family has gotten basal cell and/or squamous cell carcinoma in their old age (or earlier).
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Please don't ruin the taste. (Score:3)
Re:Please don't ruin the taste. (Score:4, Informative)
Even before GMO tomatoes were being bred to be more firm so they would ship and store better. Additionally they were bred to ripen uniformly so the top near the stem would not stay green and unripe. That was a purely marketing visual goal. All the pink bullet tomatoes you find at most grocery stores are the product of this horrible process. They have crappy texture and almost no flavor.
Very small tomatoes ripen all at once and there was no need to make them more firm for shipping. Whatever genetic characteristics that were selected for have not had much impact on the taste. Farmer's markets produce is direct from the farm and the growers use varieties that are about flavor instead of shelf life and shipping. They are picked ripe as well.
Personally I avoid grocery store produce and eat seasonally. It means I don't eat some veggies when they are not in season, but what I do eat is always fresh and flavorful.
Spring carrots rock!
Product of artificial selection (Score:2)
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Tomatoes used to be sweet, with some umami hints. Now the ones sold at Walmart are flavorless. Some may have an almost salty or metallic taste. What's the point of "enhancing" something if you are going to ruin what made it special on the first place?
Profit.
And since you're a paying customer buying metallic tomatoes in stores, you kind of answered your own question with your wallet.
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It's not sweetness you're missing.
It's sourness. Those tomatoes have PLENTY of sweetness, plenty of sugars. They lack the sourness/acidity that would allow you to notice the sweetness.
As an experiment - take some of your bland tomatoes, and add a bit (like a teaspoon) of vinegar or lemon juice to them. Let it gel a bit, wipe them off, and they'll taste sweeter. Cook it into them, and it'll taste super-sweet. Salts can also help, but acid I find is the biggest missing element.
Same thing with bland straw
Re: Please don't ruin the taste. (Score:2)
Pallid vegans rejoice! (Score:2)
Tomeatoes are the food of the future. (Score:2)
It's an old Dilbert joke. I thought it might have an audience here.
Soon they will achieve sentience (Score:2)
The end of the Salad Nicose ? (Score:1)
> Scientists have created genetically edited tomatoes, each containing as much provitamin
> D3 -- the precursor to vitamin D -- as two eggs or a tablespoon of tuna
So that's two of the ingredients of a Salad Nicose that are no longer needed?
So now what do we give up? (Score:1)
Tomatoes are much less tasty these days than genuine heritage tomatoes because they were bred to be a uniform red that appeals to consumers. Flavor was diminished but as usual uninformed consumers with uneducated palates let it pass.
So now I wonder what the "cost" will be from this "tweak".
TANSTAAFL is still the rule.