Chinese scientists engineer gene-edited tomato with popcorn aroma

In a research greenhouse in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, the tomatoes looked ordinary, but they carried a surprisingly sweet scent – the aroma of buttered popcorn.

It was not the result of accidental crossbreeding but a precise surgical edit in the tomato genome, performed by the CRISPR/Cas9 tool.

Two genes responsible for suppressing aromatic compounds were simultaneously silenced. Then the tomatoes began to emit the signature scent of premium fragrant rice or fresh buttered popcorn.

Tomatoes are among the world’s highest-yielding vegetable crops. In 2023, China alone produced more than 70 million tonnes – more than a third of the global total. But behind this scale lies a flaw that consumers have long sensed: the flavour is fading.

Rather than attempting to restore the tomato’s traditional flavour profile, a team of Chinese and Australian researchers turned to fragrant rice for inspiration.

“People like fragrant rice, and its selling price is higher than that of ordinary rice,” wrote Xu Shengchun, deputy director of the Biotechnology Research Institute at Xianghu Laboratory. He is the corresponding author of a paper published online on January 24 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Integrative Agriculture.

South China Morning Post