Israel's Evogene Ltd and BonTom, the breeding and research group of the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, have launched a joint project to develop tomato varieties with improved taste and high impact aroma.
As a result of increasing tomato yields, the original taste and aroma of the produce has been greatly reduced, at times even disappeared.
Despite efforts to regain the taste and aroma of the tomato without losing productivity, previous scientific attempts have only been modestly successful.
Evogene ceo Dr Hagai Karchi said the new endeavour is based on Evogene's expertise in computational genomics and its proprietary tomato genomics database, "and on BonTom's rich gene pool of tomato, along with the genetics and breeding capabilities of the Faculty of Agriculture's tomato breeding team”.
He added that the partners in this project will use the new markers and knowledge developed during the collaboration as tools to improve tomato varieties.
Evogene is a biotechnology company focused on developing high-value commercial products based on plant genomics.
BonTom, a seed breeding and research group is based in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot.
This research team is a leading provider of tomato varieties and one of the largest breeders group of tomatoes in the world.
