Researchers look to grow tastier tomato full of nutrients

Some consumers say tomato flavor has declined in recent years.
WOOSTER, Ohio (AP) -- Research that until recently focused on helping to make tomatoes disease resistant and easier to ship now is moving toward improving taste and nutrition as well.
Genetics researchers at Ohio State University are trying to learn more about how the tomato's color can improve its nutritional value.
Inside the greenhouses at the university's agricultural research center, seeds from hundreds of tomato plants provide the genetic building blocks that someday may lead to more nutritious varieties.
"Their appearance may be uniform, but as you dive down deeper you find they are quite different," said David Francis, who breeds new tomato seeds. "One gene can make all the difference."
Another breeder, Jay Scott of the University of Florida's tomato breeding program, has spent seven years studying how to improve flavor through taste tests and genetic analysis.
It's not easy, he said, because so many factors influence taste, including the tomato's balance of sugar and acid. Plus, producers first want a tomato that resists diseases and ships easily.
"I don't think anybody's against better flavor," Scott said. "It's a question of can they do that and provide everything else."
Wide variety
Breeding, Francis said, has created more diverse tomatoes, with most supermarkets carrying grape, cherry, roma, beefsteak, cluster and hydroponic tomatoes.
The research also has made tomatoes that are cheaper to produce and buy at markets. Advances include:
*Tomatoes that ripen after they're picked so they can survive on longer shipping routes.
*Jointless stems that stay attached to the plant instead of the tomatoes when they are picked, making it easier to harvest by machine.
*Firmer tomatoes that withstand jostling during shipping.
*Tomatoes that are resistant to fungus and bacteria.
But the biggest complaint about the modern tomato is taste -- or lack of taste. Consumers say today's varieties aren't as juicy or sweet, and they sometimes blame the breeders.
Taste tests have shown that some new varieties rate better than heirloom tomatoes despite a popular opinion that older is better, Scott said.
"I'm not sure if the public has been dumbed down so much that they don't know what tomatoes are supposed to taste like," he said.
Steady diet
All of the different shapes, colors and sizes created by breeding are for the most part designed to catch the eye of the shopper.
Tomato consumption has risen steadily over the last four decades.
Americans eat about 92 pounds of tomatoes each year in everything from ketchup to pasta sauces and salsa, according to a United States Department of Agriculture report released in 2000.
The report attributed the climb to increased interest in Italian and Mexican food and more awareness of the tomato's health benefits.
Tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, which helps fight some types of cancers including prostate cancer, along with beta-carotene, or pro-vitamin A, which is important for the eyes.
One product of tomato breeding is the popular garden variety Sun Gold, a type of cherry tomato. "It's state-of-the-art technology, produces well and tastes great," Francis said.
Still, he conceded, not enough is known to say whether these new varieties are more or less nutritious.
Francis, who develops new varieties for growers in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and the eastern United States, is one of a handful of tomato breeders in the country.
In the greenhouse
It smells like a summer garden inside the greenhouses at Ohio State's research center, where potted tomato plants in black plastic tubs are divided into generations.
In one building are the grandparents -- two wild tomato plants from South America whose seeds are resistant to disease. One is nicknamed "sticky" because its leaves are tacky to the touch, and the other is known as "stinky" because its leaves are foul smelling.
Nearby are their cousins -- about 300 types of wild tomatoes that will be evaluated for disease resistance and whose seeds and pollen will be saved. Some come with jagged-edge leaves while others are smooth. Some have a purplish tint and some are deep green.
The domestic parents are in another section. They will be crossed with each other to breed new tomatoes, and their hybrid seeds will be harvested and evaluated for commercial use.
One way to develop a more nutritious tomato would be to solve what causes the fleshy part of some tomatoes to turn yellow. The blemishes just below the stem turn into losses for producers and lessen nutritional quality.
"Color is a very important element in tomato," said student researcher Audrey Darrigues.
More than juice
She hopes the wild tomatoes in the greenhouse will provide a resistant gene that will ward off the color disorder. She also is running tests on hundreds of plants in the school's farm test plots.
Ohio State is testing on volunteers a new tomato-soy drink that is rich with the cancer-fighting lycopene to find out how well it's absorbed and used by their bodies. While much research has been done on increasing lycopene amounts in tomatoes, Francis said he would be hesitant to push for it just yet.
"We don't know if the body would absorb all of it," he said.