Given the opportunity to drink fifty bottles of wine or eat one tomato, which would you choose?
Scientists at the John Innes Centre have found a way to produce industrial quantities of useful natural compounds efficiently, by growing them in tomatoes.
The compounds are phenylpropanoids like Resveratrol, the compound found in wine which has been reported to extend lifespan in animal studies, and Genistein, the compound found in soybean which has been suggested to play a role in prevention of steroid-hormone related cancers, particularly breast cancer.
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Ref: Multi-level engineering facilitates the production of phenylpropanoid compounds in tomato. Nature Communications (26 October 2015) | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9635