Tomatoes will help produce important compounds
Last reviewed: 16.05.2018
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Specialists from the UK have developed a new method that allows the production of useful compounds in large quantities. The research group of Jan Zhang from the John Innes Research Center used tomatoes for growing tomato plants, because they are highly productive, and the method can be used on an industrial scale.
Scientists intend to grow phenylpropanoids, which include a number of useful substances, such as genistein, resveratrol. These beneficial substances are produced by plants to protect against various parasites, in particular fungi, bacteria, and also some of them help prevent a number of cancerous tumors.
In order to make useful compounds in tomatoes, the researchers used a rezuchovidka tala - a small flowering plant of the cabbage family. Rezukovidka grows practically on all continents, this plant contains protein, which activates the genes responsible for metabolic pathways, thereby facilitating the production of useful compounds. As scientists have noted, the more protein is contained in a plant, the more compounds are produced as a result.
Researchers noted an interesting fact that if you introduce a protein into a plant, you can not only increase the amount of produced compounds, but also help the plant produce more energy that the plant needs in order to produce all these substances.
In one tomato, there is as much rosweratrol as in 3.5 liters of wine, and the amount of genistein is 2.5 kg of tofu (soy cheese, an analog of our cottage cheese, which contains a large number of proteins).
According to the developers, the fact that tomatoes are an agricultural crop and characterized by high yield (from one hectare you can get about 500 tons of harvest), which is why tomatoes are the best alternative to the production of medicinal compounds in the laboratory.
Thanks to the development of the new method, valuable compounds can be produced on an industrial scale, using the habitual plants, specialists also note that this method will allow producing other products derived from aromatic amino acids. As noted by one of the scientists, useful plants are quite difficult to grow, since they require special care, but the new method has shown simply an amazing result - important compounds in large quantities can be obtained from ordinary tomato juice. According to the lead author of the research project, the work of his colleagues can be useful for other areas, for example, in microbial engineering, research of plant properties, products, as well as in the field of dietary nutrition and health.
The team of specialists believes that research with tomatoes is the basis for the method of quick and convenient production of healthy connections, and if certain adjustments are made to the process, then the method can be used to produce other, equally useful compounds.