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 ...
But are they determinate or indeterminate tomatoes?
This is a test.
“ Modern man as so messed up the tomato”
Look for the type “Porter”.
Some small shops still carry them.
They have wonderful flavor.
“She opened her eyes to see me in my underwear, standing at the open bedroom window with a rifle, saying “Got him.”
I hope she dragged you back into bed and rewarded you appropriately.
That reminds me of the story a friend of mine told me about how his wife shot a turkey from their bedroom window while she was stark naked. Apparently she’d heard the Tom gobble. She woke him up and said “cover your ears”. She knocked that bird over DRT.
My friend was laughing his head off telling the story and his wife confirmed it was true.
L
I wonder if there is some sort of methylation that is influencing the DNA transcription process.
I think that's unconstitutional. Someone is making an absolut killing hybridizing the shape of an heirloom tomato with a modern tasteless varietal and selling them to Whole Foods.What does modern agriculture have against good tasting tomatoes. What?
I’m not sure they’ve *determined* that yet. /rimshot!
Farmers around here had a much easier time before WWII, dynamite was available at the co-op...
There’s thousands of varieties, including stuffer type, oxheart, slicers, beefsteaks, but off-season toms have to be shipped to these winter areas, and naturally aren’t as good.
The Porter varieties were developed over 100 years ago by a man here in Texas named Porter.
Well they are not available as near as I can tell anywhere in DC which is probably a good thing.
Will no one post an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes reference?
We’re slipping, people...
Indeed.
The main reason the tomato was often thought to be poisonous in early America is, there are relatives that are. Worth takin’ a chance though...
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