Galápagos tomatoes are reviving ancient, toxic traits in a surprising twist of evolution. Scientists believe this genetic throwback may help them survive the islands' tough conditions.Credit: Shutterstock
Posted on 07/12/2025 11:27:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
What makes the Galápagos tomatoes particularly notable is not just that they produce alkaloids, but that they are generating types not seen in modern tomatoes...
The team examined more than 30 tomato specimens collected from various locations across the islands. They discovered that tomatoes growing on the eastern islands produced alkaloids similar to those found in today's cultivated varieties. However, tomatoes from the western islands were synthesizing a different form of the molecule—one that matched the chemical profile of ancient eggplant relatives.
This distinction is due to stereochemistry, which refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule. Two compounds can be composed of the same atoms yet function in entirely different ways depending on how those atoms are positioned in three-dimensional space.
To figure out how the tomatoes made the switch, the researchers examined the enzymes that assemble these alkaloid molecules. They discovered that changing just four amino acids in a single enzyme was enough to flip the molecule's structure from modern to ancestral.
They proved it by synthesizing the genes coding for these enzymes in the lab and inserting them into tobacco plants, which promptly began producing the old compounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
Galápagos tomatoes are reviving ancient, toxic traits in a surprising twist of evolution. Scientists believe this genetic throwback may help them survive the islands' tough conditions.Credit: Shutterstock
Galapagos. I had a fun coworker who used to mispronounce words (not on purpose). She was thinking about taking a Galapagos cruise, but pronounced it as one might do, "Jumping Frog of Galapagos County".
We all know one or two ancient eggplant relatives.
It’s old news that the seeds from hybrid plants don’t produce hybrid plants, but throwbacks to the plant varieties used to hybridize them. This sounds like pretty much the same thing.
Interesting. It’s important to note that green plants, including non-ripened tomatoes, DO NOT want to be eaten by animals, hence they try not to ‘stick-out’ color-wise. But fruits, like tomatoes, do depend on animals to spread their seeds, and thus do make themselves obvious.
LOL!
There’s a tiny yellow variety I love, but they aren’t quite tomatoes, they’re more closely related to solanum nigrum (black nightshade). There’s a red variety of this that’s also edible. I mean, you *can* eat deadly nightshade, but it could turn into a major backfire.
Very important family of food plants though — tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants; more distantly the tomatillo and nantucket ground cherry; non-food crops like tobacco; various decorative stuff like petunias and nicotiana, and some that are at least somewhat poisonous, such as chinese lanterns, jerusalem cherry, poinsettia, oleander, datura... probably forgetting some. :^)
My wife did just that. She had a tomato in the store she liked and replanted the seeds. The first year the plant only grew tomatoes on one side. After several generations, it reverted back to a very nice and tasty tomato but it had a woody core where the stem attached.
It has to do with isolation on an island and the random nature of sexual reproduction. Giantism and dwarfism among animal species results from the same thing. But thanks for playing.
It didn’t stop some freakin’ wild rodent from chewing off my (I think) radish plants sometime this week.
LOL! There isn’t a Simpson or Seinfeld episode that doesn’t cover EVERY topic imaginable! :)
It does raise questions... If they start boosting the nicotine content of tomatoes, would ketchup become even more addictive than it already is? LOL
The plants are “de-volving” from modern varieties, which are hybrids, to ancestral varieties, just like all hybrids do, but thanks for playing.
Gal -A - Pa -gOs?
There were Chinese fishing boats swarming the Galapagos Islands a few years ago. Were they doing anything besides fishing?
I’ve had gophers eat the bulb on my onions, from underground, and when that was done they pulled the tops in and ate all of that.
I grew a plant commonly referred to as Gopher Purge, the sap of which is supposed to repels gophers. It grew to about 4 feet. It was looking wilted one day and, when I touched it to investigate it fell over. Gophers has eaten the roots
Modern man as so messed up the tomato that they are no longer pleasantly edible. I which they had left them alone.
I used the .22 caliber solution for my gopher problem.
My wife used to tell the story of how she was awakened by the sound of a gunshot early one Sunday morning. She opened her eyes to see me in my underwear, standing at the open bedroom window with a rifle, saying “Got him!”
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