Developing GM tomatoes: an uphill struggle

While researchers announced last week that they can genetically engineer a longer-lasting, better-tasting tomato, some former employees of US biotechnology company Calgene greeted the news with bemusement and a sense of deja vu, reports Dale Kasler in US newspaper The Sacramento Bee.

According to the report, the scientists said that although the new discovery is intriguing, it doesn't guarantee success. The report continues that in 1994, the food industry listened with intent to the small Calgene company when it introduced the world's first genetically engineered food, the slow-ripening Flavr Savr.

But the tomato fell foul of poor crop yields, transportation problems and other issues. Two years later, the Flavr Savr was dead, and soon after, a nearly bankrupt Calgene was sold to agrichemical giant Monsanto. Many ofCalgene's top officials scattered to other cities, and Davis lost a goldenopportunity to become a hub of the biotech industry, the report adds.

Since then, various companies have experimented with genetically engineeredtomatoes, with little to show for it. The cost of bringing such a product tomarket can be prohibitive, and consumers will not necessarily pay a premium forthe added flavour.

Ex-Calgene scientist Luca Comai, now a professor at the University ofWashington, was quoted as saying,"It's not clear that you can make money with it. Look at what happened to Calgene."​

But the search for the high-tech tomato continues. For decades scientistshave tried to slow down the ripening process in tomatoes. The idea is thatslower-ripening tomatoes can stay on the vine longer - and consequently build up moreflavour.

The reported continued that in Friday's edition of US journal Science, researchersfrom the US Department of Agriculture, Cornell University and elsewhereidentified a gene called RIN (for "ripening-inhibitor"), which influencescolour change, softening and other traits that occur as the tomato ripens.

Rin is seen as a "master switch" that controls the entire ripening process,not just the softening of the skin. It can influence the nutritional value of the tomato, and the genetic alteration could even be applied tostrawberries, bananas and other produce.

The report explains that Calgene's scientists scored their lab breakthroughin 1988. It took Calgene six years to finely tune the technology, wade throughgovernment red tape and build up a production and distribution infrastructure in order to bring the Flavr Savr to supermarkets. But Calgene may have been too rapid, the paper adds, and the company should have spent more timeexperimenting with crop production techniques. Today, Calgene works mainly with canola.