Ever wondered why tomatoes taste so bland?
Tomatoes used to have a sweet taste but scientists and farmers were obsessed with red ripe tomatoes that the taste was bred out via artificial selection.
Specifically, tasteless tomatoes were caused by a mutation that reduced the color variations of unripe green tomatoes settling them in a ‘uniform’ pale, green color. This mutation is in a gene now known as the Uniform gene where it’s naturally involved in tomato fruit chloroplast development. When mutated, as certain transcription factor, called Golden 2-like (GLK2), is disabled. Without GLK2 expression, a tomato's photosynthetic capacity is greatly reduced, resulting in decreased sugar content and ultimately flavorless tomatoes.
