Question

Ripe tomatoes are naturally soft and can become damaged or rot while in transit to markets. In the past, to solve this problem, tomatoes were picked when they weren't yet ripe. The green tomatoes were firm enough to handle the transit, and then they were sprayed with ethylene gas, which causes them to artificially ripen. They turn a nice red color but are rather tasteless.A. How was genetic engineering able to solve the problem of tomatoes being damaged intransit without sacrificing taste?

Answer 1

EXPLANATION/ANSWER:

Through genetic engineering, tomatoes gained a gene called polygalacturonase in its antisense DNA strand that when the antisense strand is expressed, it prevents them from softening by interfering to the production of the enzyme polygalacturonase enzyme. Other scientists have developed a tomato with inhibited ethylene production and by doing so, the tomato delayed ripening. To make this, they inserted a modified version of the ACC synthase gene into the tomato DNA. This gene came from Pseudomonas chlororaphis.