In a recent study published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, researchers in Spain used a cisgenic approach to metabolically engineer tomatoes and fortify them further with flavonoids and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). The fortified fruits showed a multifold increase in amino acids such as valine, leucine, and isoleucine, as well as flavonoids, including kaempferol and quercetin, compared to wild-type tomatoes. The safety of consumption of these engineered tomatoes could be assessed using metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses in the future.
Background
Appropriate and adequate nutrition is crucial to health care, and customizing our food sources based on dietary requirements is the need of the hour. Plant biotechnology techniques such as gene editing and cisgenesis allow the metabolic customization of crops, vegetables, and fruits to optimize their nutritional content, the consumption of which could help prevent deficiencies and improve health outcomes, especially in older adults and vegetarians.