The tomato may be a fruit, but no one’s putting it in their cobbler. However, you might make that mistake soon if you aren’t paying attention. That’s because a team of scientists have created the Purple Tomato, featuring skin of deep amethyst, like a plum, and insides a vivid violet. Cherry-sized, it resembles a round Concord grape, but the taste is all tomato.
How did a vegetable known for its reds, greens, and yellows come to resemble summery, purply fruit? That’s thanks to some clever genetic engineering, and to the snapdragon flower. Though the snapdragon itself is edible, the scientists were more interested in its color genes, which make some flowers intensely indigo. Researchers used bacteria as a vehicle: isolating the purple genes in the snapdragon, the team inserted two of them into bacteria, which deposited its genetic passengers into a waiting tomato. The Purple Tomato was born.
Sounds simple, but this was a decades-long process to perfect. And no one wanted the Purple Tomato just for its pretty looks. Instead, scientists hoped to create a tomato full of antioxidants. Specifically, anthocyanins, which give eggplants, blackberries, and blueberries both color and health benefits, such as fighting inflammation and disease. With the snapdragon’s purple gene, this new tomato possesses plenty of antioxidants—much more than a tomato usually has.
While the Purple Tomato isn’t the only tomato that’s, well, purple, its dramatic shading of both peel and flesh makes it stick out. And you could soon grow your very own, as it’s available in limited quantities to home gardeners. So it’s up to you whether you pop this fruit in a BLT, or a shortcake.
