Scientists have created a sun-dried tomato that is packed with vitamins D and E.
The flesh and peel of the fruit were genetically engineered to contain the same amount of vitamins D and E as two eggs or 28 grams of tuna.
These provitamins were easily converted to D3 when exposed to ultraviolet light.
There are potential health-related benefits to the provitamin and the vitamin.
We have shown that you can biofortify tomatoes with provitamin D3 using gene editing, which means tomatoes could be developed as a plant-based, sustainable source of vitamins.
One billion people around the world have insufficient levels of vitamin D. We are addressing a huge health problem, but are helping producers because tomato leaves which currently go to waste could be used to make supplements from the gene-edited lines.
The green leaves of the tomatoes contained 600 micrograms of provitamin D3 per gram.
The recommended daily intake for adults is 60 times greater.
The authors are not suggesting that people eat tomato leaves with the flesh, but that they use the greenery instead of throwing it away. The leftover leaves could be used to make vegan supplements.
It seems every part of the genetically engineered fruit can be used to fight the deficiency of vitamins D and E.
Exposure to the sun is one way to increase the amount of vitamins D and K in the human body. Only a small number of foods are vegan and only a few are natural sources of the vitamins.
Milk, cereals, and orange juice have been fortified with vitamins D and E in order to boost public health.
7-dehydrocholesterol, or 7-DHC, is one of the vitamins found in tomatoes.
By turning off the genes that break down 7-DHC, researchers were able to force the vitamin D to accumulate in both ripe and unripe fruit.
It doesn't have to be to show benefits to be converted to vitamin D in the presence of sunlight.
For the elderly with declining levels of 7-DHC, consuming fruit biofortified with 7-DHC might address their deficiencies.
No changes to tomato growth, development, or yield were caused by the genetic tweaking.
biofortifying fruits and vegetables with vitamins D and E could be a way to improve public health, as it is linked to an increased risk of cancer, Parkinson's disease, depression, and dementia.
Tomatoes are being called the next plant-based, sustainable source of vitamins D3 and E. They could be the last.
There are similar ways in which peppers, potatoes, and eggplants can accumulate in the plants.
Jie Li is a plant scientist who works in Martin's lab and she says that the provitamin D enriched tomatoes they have produced offer a much-needed plant-based source of sunshine vitamins.
That is great news for people who want to adopt a plant-rich, vegetarian or vegan diet, and for the growing number of people who suffer from the problem of insufficiency of vitamins D and E.
Nature Plants published the study.
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