If the season is right, you may find a brilliant red tomato sitting on a table in Mattoo's office. The tomato might look like it was just picked, but chances are it's one of his transgenic tomatoes that has been sitting there for weeks. In collaboration with a Purdue University scientist in West Lafayette, Indiana, Mattoo has developed a novel means for slowing ripening by introducing a gene that controls only this function. Mattoo's new transgenic tomatoes have 2.5 times more lycopene than nontransgenic tomatoes. Lycopene is a carotenoid that has strong antioxidant properties.
Antioxidants prevent oxygen radicals from causing damage in cells.
Carotenoids aid in preventing early blindness in children, preventing cancer, enhancing cardiovascular health, and slowing aging. Not only are the transgenic tomatoes richer in lycopene, they're also more robust and more solid compared to traditional tomatoes. Another tomato genetically engineered by Mattoo has a longer shelf life. Its cell membranes deteriorate more slowly during and after ripening. In a plant, thousands of genes control many functions.