Flavr Savr Tomatoes, Failure!

 

Flvor savr tomatoes were created for delayed ripening, to prevent food from destruction. and the technique behind displays Antisense RNA  Application. this was first genetically modified food stuff approved for sale.

The tale:

Tomatoes take 8weeks in complete developement, and many taste, flavor and color related genes turn on in last two weeks. One of them is gene coding for Polygalacturonase enzyme.

Polygalacturonase enzyme is reponsible for rotting of tomatoes. this enzyme breaks down polygalacturonic acid component of cell wall in the fruits pericarp.

Hypothesis

Partial inactivation of this gene should increase the lifespan of tomatoes

Experiment

To test the hypothesis 730bp restriction fragment was obtained from 5 region of  polygalacturonase gene.

Orientation of the fragment was reversed. Cauliflower Mosaic virus promotor was ligated to start of sequence.

Plant Ployadenylation sequence was attatched to the end.

This construction was then inserted to Ti plasmid vector pBIN19

Inside plant transcription with CMV promotor should result in antisense RNA complementary to first half of polygalacturonase gene.

Further northern hybridization analysis showed that transformed  plants contained less polygalcturonase mRNA than the normal plant.

results showed that less amounts of polygalacturonase acid were produced in plants, fruits could not for prolonged time.

This indicated the inefficacy of Antisense RNA technology which blocked the gene product to very less extent.

Flavr Savr tomatoes appered in market in 1994, but being first GM Food were poorly accepted by people and they showed very less impact of slow ripening flavr savr tomatoes were off the market.