producing resveratrol in tomatoes

[Fusion_power]

Interesting article, do we need phytonutrient production in tomatoes?

http://www.thelatestnews.com/will-gm...in-the-future/

[Gerardo]

I guess they're saying we can skip the medicinal plants, skip the bioreactors, and just take advantage of the infrastructure for a fruit that is produced to the tune of 60 mill tons per annum.

I guess everything is relative, but I've never described tomatoes this way: "Tomatoes have been chosen because they have very high yield crops that don’t require much attention and are relatively cheap to grow."

Solid link and read fusion power, thanks.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Interesting article, do we need phytonutrient production in tomatoes?

http://www.thelatestnews.com/will-gm...in-the-future/

Thank you Darrel (Fusion_power)!!!
Dutch

[carolyn137]

OK, a GMO with more whatever than red wine. I'll take the red wine, pretty please.

And a traditionally bred variety called OSU was bred for what health benefits and the now hundreds of antho ones that were bred starting with OSU or OSU P20.

I'll take the natural fruits high in anthocyanins, pretty please.

And when they breed a GMO tomato that can make insulin, please let me know since I'm in the so called doughnut hole with my insulin needs and you don't want to know how much I have to pay for that, and yes, I do have a prescription plan.

Actually I did find the article interesting, but in the long run in IMO to improve nutrition for those who need that b/c of various circumstances, it's quite a different story to get them to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.And that mainly b/c of higher costs for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Carolyn

[bower]

I'm with Carolyn... I'd rather get my resveratrol from a glass of wine.

Of course, they're talking about a tomato (one fruit?!) with as much resveratrol as 50 bottles of wine.. it hardly seems possible. I doubt it would be edible. As they said, juice, extract, and sell the pills. Same for genistein, I can hardly imagine a tomato packing the taste of several kilos of tofu.

I really don't get the whole business of "pharm" ing. I thought the pharmaceutical business was doing just fine using yeasts and other micros to produce in the confines of a vat. Surely that is more space-effective and cost effective than taking it outdoors in the form of tomato plants. Willing to bet that pest/pathogen issues are well in hand back home in the vat... which can be sanitized in the first place and protected from unwanted visitors as it should be. Now leave that ideal situation for the open field with its weeds, pests and tomato pathogens blowing through on... oh yes, the weather. The chemical cost of protecting the 'industrial' tomatoes from wp&p alone is going to cut at the bottom line. But there ain't no spray for weather!

Resveratrol and genistein are concentrated from food crops so I guess the "fifty bottle" tomato may be seen as a saving in the usage of prime farmland. This wouldn't be true for the majority of medicinal crops which do just fine (and/or are often more potent) when grown on marginal land.

And as regards getting medicinals from the plants that naturally produced them, I consider it a bonus that those plants don't cross pollinate my tomato crop! Sheeeesh. Not to mention that they don't need to be sprayed with any chemicals, they're not a bit 'delicate' as the tomato surely is.

But what I really want to know is, can they make a "fifty bottle" tomato for my favourite health product "lycopene"? Fifty tomatoes in one fruit? Bet that would jazz your sauce...

When plants are genetically modified to cause them to be chemical factories, I think it is great. I would certainly prefer to have a field of tomatoes growing in my neighborhood, than a new chemical plant. I doubt the tomatoes will be consumed as food so I don't think their taste would be a consideration. The neat thing is many useful products can probably be produced using various modified plants.

I would expect the flowers to be sterile so cross pollination shouldn't be a problem.

I know a lot of plant based experimentation has been in progress to produce insulin and it will probably happen in the near future. It should produce insulin at much lower costs than current methods, but I doubt if any cost savings will be passed on to consumers.

Ted

[Fusion_power]

can they make a "fifty bottle" tomato for my favourite health product "lycopene"?

I'm anxiously waiting on that new flat tomato that you peel and fry and it tastes and looks exactly like a sizzling hot juicy rib-eye steak. I'm willing to add salt if needed.

[ChrisK]

Much of the idea behind pharming/metabolic engineering in plants is to increase molecules already there where the pathways for biosynthesis may or may not be entirely clear or very complex like the one referenced in the article, thus making microbial fermentation difficult.

As an example, the pathway to make morphine was only recently transferred into yeast and they are not at commercial scale production. Many natural pharmaceuticals are complex molecules e.g. Taxol.

So far no products have had enough economic value to make this production scheme feasible.

I know of Martin's work, will be interesting to see where this goes, if anywhere.

I wouldn't hold my breath for this showing up anytime soon.

[Fusion_power]

Said a different way, when an entire biopath exists in a plant such as resveratrol, it is relatively easy to up-regulate that biopath. Think of it like a car. The motor is already running and all you have to do is hit the accelerator and jam it to the floor. We have not yet had any success with transferring entire biopaths into a different species. There is a lot of work to transfer nitrogen fixation into maize, but so far it is just a hopeful dream.

[ChrisK]

Good analogy. Some pathways are easier to rev up than others though, trust me.

Not quite right on the transferring of biosynthetic pathways between species. Omega fatty acids are an example, used some existing pathways added others.

See: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...1403011500005X

There are others working on this too, the savvy googler can find them.

But you are right, nothing as complex as nitrogen fixing maize (one of the holy grails so to speak of my field) which is a tremendously more complex than metabolic pharming.

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Said a different way, when an entire biopath exists in a plant such as resveratrol, it is relatively easy to up-regulate that biopath. Think of it like a car. The motor is already running and all you have to do is hit the accelerator and jam it to the floor. We have not yet had any success with transferring entire biopaths into a different species. There is a lot of work to transfer nitrogen fixation into maize, but so far it is just a hopeful dream.

[bower]

It almost surprises me that N-fixing maize should be more difficult...
I mean, the N fixing that I know about in peas, beans, alders etc... is actually accomplished by the symbiont.. all you need are roots willing to accomodate them with hotels. I suppose the genetics of root structure are complicated? Truly I know nothing about corn or grains although I know they are in the grasses or monocots. Would love to read about the failed experiments and why they didn't take. It is certainly a worthy goal.

In fact, here's a recent article summarizing research about a N fixing bacterium found in sugar cane and capable of colonizing other crop hosts.. including corn.
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ija/2014/208383/

[Fusion_power]

The biggest reason at this time is that nitrofixers are treated as invasive by the corn plant. Also, corn is notorious for producing a pharmacopoeia of repellent and anti-infective chemicals such as dimboa. The plant has to turn down the immune response and provide a convenient home so that the nitrogen fixers are able to do their thing. This double requirement has stymied all attempts so far at producing Nitro-Maize.

The info about sugar cane nitrogen fixers came out about a year ago. It is being aggressively pursued by breeding companies, but so far has not delivered the desired results. Give them a bit more time and this organism may become a major new factor in maize production.

[ChrisK]

endophytic diazotrophs of grasses incl. sugar cane, have been known about for decades. so far no success manipulating them in the real world.

there are plenty of reviews available on the subject of legume nitrogen fixation in good journals if you want to understand the complexity.

[ChrisK]

ok weird double post.

[Fusion_power]

I spent an hour reading up on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelina_sativa and details about converting it to produce omega 3 fatty acids. Most of the biopath already existed except the end step of converting lineolic into omega 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid While I agree that this is a significant step beyond figuring out how to push the accelerator, it just required putting the key in the switch first. This is not on a level of complexity of inserting C4 chlorophyll into a C3 plant nor is it in the range of turning maize into a nitrogen fixing plant. When we are able to make entire biopath modifications, then we will have the keys to the genetic kingdom.