California's Environmental Protection Agency concurrently registered BIO-SAVE 11 as a biofungicide. A new tomato just reaching some New York grocery stores is the first to carry a gene with an ARS pedigree. A license agreement with ARS permits DNA Plant Technology Corp., Oakland, CA, to use the gene to prolong freshness and flavor of more than a dozen fresh fruits and vegetables. DNAP biotechnologists designed the new Endless Summer tomato. Earlier, ARS and University of California at Berkeley researchers found a key gene in zucchini and tomato and retooled it to keep production of a natural plant hormone, ethylene, turned off.
Ethylene occurs naturally in tomato and many other plants.
In nature, once ethylene is turned on, it stays on, causing fruit to ripen, but then overripen and rot. Most commercial tomatoes are picked before ripening is completed. This shortens the time the fruit can stay on the vine to naturally develop sugars and acids crucial to hearty flavor. Tomatoes with the rebuilt gene can stay on the vine longer to enhance flavor. Later, when exposed to ethylene in the warehouse, they soften and turn red.