Health Will GM Tomatoes be Used to Fight Diseases in the Future?

[tom_mai78101]

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have developed a new strain of genetically modified tomatoes that are able to efficiently produce industrial volumes of natural disease-fighting compounds such as Resveratrol and Genistein. This process could also be used to grow other natural chemicals in tomatoes.

Resveratrol is a member of the phenylpropanoids; an antioxidant found in grapes (when processed also in red wine), which has been reported to increase the lifespan of animals in certain animal studies. It may also be an effective supplement to fight cancer, heart conditions, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, but these claims are yet to be scientifically proven as there are still mixed opinions on the effects of Resveratrol. The researchers have been able to produce a tomato that has the equivalent amount of Resveratrol as fifty bottles of red wine.

Another GM tomato produced larger quantities of Genistein, a compound normally found in soya beans, which has been linked to the prevention of steroid-hormone related cancers, such as breast cancer. One such tomato had comparable levels of Genistein as eating 2.5 kg of tofu.

Read more here. (The Latest News)

 

[Accname]

No, but they may be used to fight terrorists (or just people we dont like). We will genetically engineer them to be poisonous and spreading very quickly. Then we will drop seeds of these all over the enemy countries. The tomatoes will spread rapidly, stealing natural resources from local crops. They will also kill the wildlife and poison their ground water. It will be hell.

 

[FireCat]

Fighting terrorists with tomatoes?

 

[KMilz]

It's already a member of the nightshade family. Making it poisonous should be all too easy.