SandwichShortOfAPicnic
Legendary Member
Mod.edit: post moved to form new topic (MG)
also read this below. It basically says the artificial ripening reduces the sugar levels in the tomato with is why they’re often flavourless and tells you what to look for, for a good tomato.
The team of researchers from UC Davis, Cornell, and Spain discovered that the pretty tomatoes we get at the supermarket have a genetic mutation causing them to have the desired uniform color but which also lessens the formation of those sugar producing chloroplasts. The culprit is SIGLK2, a Golden2-like (GLK) gene they identified in tomatoes. This gene produces a protein similar to the gene Merle Jenkins described in 1926 as being responsible for the corn stalk going from being green to a golden green with a cast of silver (his words for the color). The product of SIGLK2 is one of many different proteins that help control the photosynthesis in the plants. Without it there is less photosynthesis in the fruit (but not the leaves, as these get by with SIGLK1), which means less sugar and by-products, and therefore less taste and flavor for the fruit.
It is rare that a supermarket tomato is picked ripe. Often they are produced in greenhouses and picked while still green, transported, and when close to being placed for sale, treated with ethylene to trigger the ripening process. This artificial ripening is done by the fruit without the extra energy from the plant resulting in only a fraction of what the sugar and aroma compound production could have been.
In trying to create prettier fruit that looks riper, breeders killed the source of sweetness in the tomato. Tomatoes with SIGLK2 have more chloroplasts producing more sugars than the varieties that stock most supermarkets. And as any cook knows, when something lacks taste, or the taste is too bitter, no amount of aromatics can fix it. So next time your picking a tomato, look for signs of SIGLK2 working: a tinge of green at the stem and patchy color.
Taken from Ugly tomatoes taste better · Flavoralchemy
also read this below. It basically says the artificial ripening reduces the sugar levels in the tomato with is why they’re often flavourless and tells you what to look for, for a good tomato.
The team of researchers from UC Davis, Cornell, and Spain discovered that the pretty tomatoes we get at the supermarket have a genetic mutation causing them to have the desired uniform color but which also lessens the formation of those sugar producing chloroplasts. The culprit is SIGLK2, a Golden2-like (GLK) gene they identified in tomatoes. This gene produces a protein similar to the gene Merle Jenkins described in 1926 as being responsible for the corn stalk going from being green to a golden green with a cast of silver (his words for the color). The product of SIGLK2 is one of many different proteins that help control the photosynthesis in the plants. Without it there is less photosynthesis in the fruit (but not the leaves, as these get by with SIGLK1), which means less sugar and by-products, and therefore less taste and flavor for the fruit.
It is rare that a supermarket tomato is picked ripe. Often they are produced in greenhouses and picked while still green, transported, and when close to being placed for sale, treated with ethylene to trigger the ripening process. This artificial ripening is done by the fruit without the extra energy from the plant resulting in only a fraction of what the sugar and aroma compound production could have been.
In trying to create prettier fruit that looks riper, breeders killed the source of sweetness in the tomato. Tomatoes with SIGLK2 have more chloroplasts producing more sugars than the varieties that stock most supermarkets. And as any cook knows, when something lacks taste, or the taste is too bitter, no amount of aromatics can fix it. So next time your picking a tomato, look for signs of SIGLK2 working: a tinge of green at the stem and patchy color.
Taken from Ugly tomatoes taste better · Flavoralchemy
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