Scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel have uncovered the gene responsible for producing pink-skinned tomatoes.
Dr Asaph Aharoni of the institute’s plant sciences department carried out research, which found that the differences between pink and red tomatoes are much greater than just their skin colour.
Aharoni found that alterations in the fatty composition of the pink tomato’s outer layer caused its cuticle to be both thinner and less flexible than that of ordinary, red tomato skin.
The researchers found changes could be traced to a mutation on a single gene known as SIMYB12.
This gene acts as a master switch that regulates the activities of a whole network of other genes, controlling the amounts of yellow pigments, as well as a host of other substances in the tomato.
Aharoni said: “Since identifying the gene, we found we could use it as a marker to predict the future colour of the fruit in the very early stages of development, even before the plant has flowered. This ability could accelerate efforts to develop new, exotic tomato varieties - a process that can generally take more than 10 years.”
