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PLANT GENETICS

Purple Tomatoes, Black Rice and Food Security

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 22, page 414 (2021)Cite this article

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Rice grains are a staple food source in many parts of the world. They are rich in diverse nutrients, including protein, unsaturated oil, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre, flavonoids and polysaccharides, among others. These nutrients are present in the pericarp, seed coat, aleurone, germ and endosperm. Yet, for thousands of years, culinary tastes have preferred polished rice, which is more palatable but discards ~80% of the nutrients and beneficial components of the grain as bran.

In 2008, Butelli et al. published a paper in Nature Biotechnology reporting a transgenic purple tomato with greatly enhanced levels of anthocyanins. This study showed that the lifespan of cancer-susceptible Trp53–/– mice fed a diet supplemented with such tomatoes was extended by 28% relative to the average lifespan for this mouse strain. It has been proposed that the health benefits of anthocyanins are a direct effect of their function as antioxidants, and an indirect effect of their ability to activate endogenous antioxidant defence systems and signalling pathways.

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References

Original article

  • Butelli, E. et al. Enrichment of tomato fruit with health-promoting anthocyanins by expression of select transcription factors. Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 1301–1308 (2008)

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  1. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China

    Qifa Zhang

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  1. Qifa Zhang
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Correspondence to Qifa Zhang.

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Zhang, Q. Purple Tomatoes, Black Rice and Food Security. Nat Rev Genet 22, 414 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-021-00359-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-021-00359-3

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