Blue Gmo tomatoes miracle cure or say no to gmo?

I’m posting this article since i have heard more people talking about blue tomatoes the last few years. What is the selling point you may wonder? These tomatoes are said to extend the lives of mice with cancer by 30%. See the photo below https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/magazine/gmos.html


If you are curious to know more about the indigo i found this article https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/genetically-modified-purple-tomatoes-even-28033241
The ones i saw originally were from SE asia which may or may not be gmo.
Chinese researchers develop purple tomato with more anthocyanins - Xinhua | English.news.cn
There have been studies going on for many years

Not everyone realizes these are gmo tomatoes.

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The product is a response to consumers who believe anthocyanins are a panacea.

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@Richard

Take a look at this article if you get some time i think someone has either bought out the non gmo tomato or something else is happening Interesting article: Sourcing Open Pollinated Vs Heirloom Seeds

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Funny enough i was ordering tomato seeds today. And immediately recognized the cultivar you mentioned just now from my searches earlier for what seeds i wanted.

indigo rose is actually not a GMO tomato. But has been around for a bit. And was created by crossing different wild tomato’s with your normal cultivars.
indigo rose also only colors blue/purple on the skin where sun hits it. (inside is not blue)

There is actually a whole group of blue/purple tomato’s that where gotten from natural crosses. (non GMO)
Search google for “brad’s atmic grape tomato”
for example

Technology is not inherently “bad” or “evil” or “good”. Although it can be used in such ways
i look at GMO technology like i look at nuclear technology.
Nuclear technology can be used to make nuclear bombs. (bad in my opinion)
But can also be used for medical imaging, treatments that can cure cancer and possible one day nuclear fusion reactors. (great in my opinion)

I don’t think the question should be if GMO is “bad” or “good” but if a certain application of GMO is “wise”, “good”, “responsible”
Lets face it, if GMO’s aren’t already part of your daily life (how do you think a lot of medication is made?) It probably will be within a decade or a few.

I think we should focus on how we use GMO responsibly.
At face value, using GMO’s to transfer some of the health benefits from a substance that’s usually found in blueberry’s to tomato’s seems like a good idea.
However, due to practical reasons, nobody ate blueberry’s year round (or not a large enough group, to get reliable long term health information)
Getting a really large dosis of anthocyanin was impractically. But with a GMO tomato producing it would suddenly become very easy.
And what’s to stop a company from producing a tomato that produces 100 times more than the current one does? Will probably market better (100 times as healthy right?)

I would like it, if regulation considered the goal of the GMO and not only the application or from what species it came.

If you can scientifically prove what amount of anthocyanin would be most healthy to consume daily. I would be fine with GMO tech making it possible to do that practically. However, if not first demanding a thorough vetting of the goal of the GMO. I’m not comfortable trusting corporations and marketing to only use GMO for good. And minimize risks, consider long term safety / responsible use, over maximizing short term profit.

I would like to see GMO tech use being possible but being heavily regulated. With long term goals in mind.

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@oscar when i read this article on gmo tomatoes https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/genetically-modified-purple-tomatoes-even-28033241 indigo rose much to my surprise was listed and the tomato doesn’t look right either

That was in conflict with what i thought which is shown with this image

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really agree with you. mono crop intended GMO, stuff that is meant to let more insecticide and herbicides get used,I don’t like so much- usually that’s for the profit and convenience of a few

things that increase nutrients or flavor or productivity of food are a great idea, though.

it’s just a technology, a good usable tool, it’s all about what we do with it

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clarkinks, Jim Myers developed high anthocyanin tomatoes by crossing with a wild tomato species that produces purple berries. There are 3 genes involved to get the deepest purple color. I can assure you that Jim’s tomatoes are NOT GMO. Two of the genes are aft (anthocyanin fruit) and atv (atroviolacea). You can look them up on TGRC’s gene descriptions.

Tomatoes have all the genetic instructions to produce anthocyanin, but it is de-regulated almost to the point it doesn’t exist. Crossing with the wild species adds the regulatory genes needed to turn on anthocyanin production. The key to understand this set of genes is that it only produces anthocyanin where exposed to sun. The layer of deep color is only next to the skin of the tomato. The interior is red or yellow or orange or other colors depending on the genetics.

What about the GMO tomatoes? One effort incorporated a regulatory sequence from snapdragons that turns the anthocyanin biopath on and keeps it there. The result is fruit that are deep purple/blue all the way through.

Is anthocyanin a healthy plant product to consume? Yes, but as with many plant products there are some side effects. High anthocyanin tomatoes tend to have very bad flavors with very low sugar. I’ve worked on it for a few years and made a bunch of crosses. I have a variety named Blueberry Sugar that is reasonably good flavored.

Would I grow a GMO tomato? In this case yes, but only because I know the genetics involved. They did not move the anthocyanin biopath into tomatoes, it was already there. They moved a regulatory sequence that turns on the existing anthocyanin biopath.

I’ve grown blue tomatoes for the last 16 years. They tasted really bad at first. It took years to get them to taste good enough to eat. Also, Indigo Rose is definitely NOT GMO!

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Personally, I don’t have a problem with GMOs. Their implementation is often a bandaid to a bigger problem (cropping systems that allow weeds, make an herbicide resistant crop, now weeds are herbicide resistant, etc).

Check out Brad Gates’ Wild Boar Farms for lots of cool colored tomatoes. I have found most don’t do great in my climate, for what it’s worth (Napa and Pennsylvania are not very similar!). His Pink Berkely Tie Dye is my favorite tomato.

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The first picture you posted is poor reporting from the article. You can even see the ghetty “stock photo” thingy below it.

The reporter/editor or whoever probably just took the first stock photo they could find and combined it with the first blue tomato cultivar hit on google.

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GMO is not all created equal. the discussion with CRISPR.
when you irradiate plants and seeds with radioactivity, random segments of DNA are destroyed, which can give you an advantage, is not called a GMO because it happens naturally. With CRISPR you can specifically destroy the DNA you want to destroy. Where’s the difference?
or another thing, resistance genes to a disease of apple variety A can cross with variety B, or transferred by genetic engineering.

other things are more questionable, transferring genes from animals into plants, which can then further crossbreed…

but e.g. insulin or HGH is made in GMO bacteria, which makes sense.

but on the whole one should at least make sure that the GMO things don’t cross with other things in nature, because you don’t know what the end effect will be

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Thanks everyone this helps us get to the bottom of things with this tomato. Appreciate all the explanations. Many of you are very knowledable about tomatoes. In the USA we have all most likely consumed gmo but i question how healthy they are. We wouldn’t know in most cases. We grew them ourselves as soy bean etc. row crops for several years. One of the reasons i dont like gmo as much as others is because we applied the chemicals and i know what goes on the fields. Im not against the idea of using what you need to in order to feed the population. Gmo crops on mars wont bother me a bit because they are contained. Gmo seeds can contaminate ours and i dont like that. In this case im focused on this tomato and you all helped me out here. Not to concerned with everything else for the moment. This was another article about the tomato in the times that through me off as it was labeled indigo. Look at the diagram

Calling something indigo or posting pictures of indigo rose was confusing at a minimum. We understand it is somewhat indigo colored.

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thats whishful thinking. If only it was possible to make sure GMO’s don’t escape into the “wild” the whole discussion would be a lot more simple.

look into Horizontal gene transfer - Wikipedia for example. Gene’s can be transferred even between organisms that could not mate with each other.

I think you should always assume a GMO will escape into the wild. If the consequences of that escape are to bad. Don’t make it or don’t let it out of quarantine. (hope for the best, prepare for the worst)

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Why not just eat some blueberries and a shot of elderberry juice? If higher anthocyanins is the goal.

Now at 7-11: blue tomato slurpee. It doesn’t slide off the tongue the same way as blue razzberry.

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Yes, this is very common with bacteria. it is assumed that humans have so many genes from viruses.
on the one hand, nature has done so much genetic engineering.
even if we all destroy ourselves with it, something will survive.

I’m not against it in principle, but I’m not 100% in favor either, e.g. for the reasons you mentioned.
but it has been around and will continue to be done with it.
best case it should all happen in quarantine.

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I read about anthocyanin that UV light stimulates the production of it and that it protects against free radicals.
i don’t know if free radicale also stimulates the production of anthocyanin
But I once read where plants had been treated with ozone and then they produced more than 20 times more of these healthy plant substances, radical protectors…
maybe you can let plants produce extra much healthy substances in this way

clearly the big disadvantage, it is enormous stress and inhibits growth. but maybe you can let them grow normally and then treat them with ozone

Ozone is a very active form of oxygen meaning you don’t want to be exposed to any more if it than possible.

Anthocyanins are general purpose plant protective chemicals in the same class as caroteinoids and cyanoalkaloids (tannins). Between the two, they prevent insect attacks, prevent “sunburn”, prevent animal predation, and generally keep the plant healthy in a world that tries hard to kill them. When the fruit ripens, it deliberately replaces many of the protective chemicals with animal attractants such as sugar and flavor compounds. This is so animals will consume the fruit and spread seed. This is why persimmon ripens sweet and with denatured tannins and why a tomato only tastes good when it has accumulated sugar, softened, and developed flavor.

Anthocyanins are chemically structured so they absorb free radicals. Anthocyanins have “electron receptors” which free radicals glom onto. Human bodies are places where free radicals are readily generated and/or accumulated from our diet. Consuming anthocyanins is a proven way to reduce cellular damage caused by free radicals. Several carotenoids perform the same. This is one reason why tomatoes (lycopene) and blueberries (anthocyanins) are important in our diet.

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Another video i located

Gmo never been eell received

Of course you shouldn’t be exposed to ozone, but the same goes for chlorine or hydrogen peroxide…
they steal electrons and destroy cells, Membran, dna …with them, which is why they also act as disinfectants.

and the antioxidants can give off electrons without becoming a radical themselves…

you should be careful with the carotene if you are a smoker. it has shown that beta carotene can even promote lung cancer

Never smoked. Never will. Nasty smell smokers get and I don’t like it. I kissed a girl when I was a teenager. She smoked a couple of packs a day. It was very repulsive.

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smoking will eventually die out.
it’s weird anyway, there used to be other things in tobacco, but today it’s mostly just addictive and doesn’t have much effect, except that it destroys the lungs