Boosting levels of a hormone in tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum) causes them to make tubers, like their sibling species the potato (Solanum tuberosum).

Yuval Eshed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, Eliezer Lifschitz at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and their team engineered tomatoes to have high levels of a cytokinin, a type of hormone found in all plants. The tomatoes formed tiny tubers (pictured) at the base of leaves along their stems, where cells divide and levels of hormones fluctuate.

Credit: TAMAR EVIATAR-RIBAK

Giving potato plants the hormone in culture also elicited small spuds along plant stems. The authors suggest that a simple, common mechanism might prompt tubers in other species.

Curr. Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.061 (2013)