New research is suggesting that scientists are one step closer to genetically engineering spicy tomatoes.
Scientists believe they have found a way to tweak the genes of the tomato to make it produce capsaicinoids, which give peppers their spicy taste.
The research published in Trends in Plant Science, states that research from the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil shows promise for tomato "gene-editing".
“Engineering the capsaicinoid genetic pathway to the tomato would make it easier and cheaper to produce this compound, which has very interesting applications,” said the senior author of the paper, Agustin Zsögön.
This is important to note: The aim of the modification would not be to make spicy tomatoes available in supermarkets, but to mass produce capsaicinoids more easily.
If massed produced, the fiery substance has many useful nutritional and antibiotic properties and is found in everything from painkillers to pepper spray.
According to The Independent, researchers who have sequenced the genome of the tomato discovered it still had the genes needed to produce capsaicinoids, but lacks the ability to switch them on.
So you more than likely won't see "spicy tomatoes" at your local grocery store, but will likely hear about the use of capsaicinoids on mass production level.
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