(Soon, tastier tomatoes…) Scientists have discovered the genes
that influence flavour and colour in wild and traditional tomato
varieties. The discovery could make more tomatoes taste like
heirlooms, said the international research team headed by a
University of California, Davis, plant scientist. The finding
has significant implications for the U.S. tomato industry, which
annually harvests more than 15 million tons of the fruit for
processing and fresh-market sales. "This information about the
gene responsible for the trait in wild and traditional varieties
provides a strategy to recapture quality characteristics that
had been unknowingly bred out of modern cultivated tomatoes,"
said Ann Powell, a biochemist in UC Davis' Department of Plant
Sciences and one of the lead authors of the study. "Now that we
know that some of the qualities that people value in heirloom
tomatoes can be made available in other types of tomatoes,
farmers can have access to more varieties of tomatoes that
produce well and also have d