Prostate-of-the-art tomato

It’s deep red, juicy, tastes superb and should protect slightly less than 50 per cent of consumers against one of the most common of all cancers. And it’s not genetically modified.

It’s the high crimson tomato bred by Dr Tim O’Hare’s research group at Queensland Department of Primary Industries’ research station at Gatton, west of Brisbane.

The experimental tomato is enriched in the flavonoid molecule lycopene, a phenolic compound with potent anti-oxidant properties. Recent medical research indicates it also has unexplained powers to reduce men’s risk of prostate cancer.

In addition to containing the high crimson gene, which boosts lycopene synthesis by 50 per cent, the experimental tomato has the high pigment gene, that doubles the number of cellular organelles: chromoplasts containing lycopene, chloroplasts and mitochondria.

The Gatton team won’t have a commercial version for two years. For all its prospective virtues, the prototype has several flaws needing correction.

O’Hare, senior plant physiologist at Gatton, said the high crimson gene has effects on the entire plant.

The plants have brittle stems, a slightly lower yield, and produce fewer seeds. Others breeders who have tried to develop a high-lycopene tomato for its undoubted commercial value, were stymied because these undesirable traits could not be “bred out” without losing the high crimson gene.

O’Hare’s team believes it has found a gene that will negate these problems, without compromising the high-lycopene trait. By crossing the plant containing the secret, remedial gene with the high crimson plant, they hope to produce a donor line that can be crossed with existing cultivars.

Rather than just develop boutique cultivars as a nutriceutical to ward off prostate cancer in males, O’Hare would like to see the high-lycopene trait introduced to all commercially-grown tomatoes – the anti-oxidant properties of lycopene have other health benefits.

O’Hare says that, in informal comparisons, people have found the deep crimson colour highly attractive – they invariably prefer the high crimson line over current commercial varieties sold in supermarkets.

When the fruit is cut to reveal its deep crimson flesh, they have preferred it even to highly coloured, vine-ripened lines.

As to the flavour imparted by the extra lycopene, O’Hare said, “It’s certainly not a negative, but we need to do blind, taste-panel tests. Because it looks so good, consumers expect it to taste better.”