http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25885756

Linda

It's too bad that this tomato gets confused with the likes of Indigo Rose which (I have read) is NOT genetically modified.

Linda

The whole reason that Dr. Myers developed p20 and the other first ones before he released Indigo Rose, was to hopefully augment diets to get some anthocyanins into people by eating something.

I linked to the article below so interested folks can click on it directly

Carolyn, and yes, the one in England has been known for many years, originally called blueberry by some b'c they though a blueberry gene had been introduced, but, as the article noted, it was a snapdragon gene.

These are political statements with blurred boundaries of what constitutes "conventional" breeding, just like when I go to Whole Foods and see "Conventional" vs. "Organic". In fact, Indigo Rose was developed by "introgressing" at least three different genes from three respective species:

Solanum lycopersicoides
Solanum chilense
Solanum cheesemanii

In order to do these multigenerational, multiple gene introgressions, a battery of genetically modified organism tools and laboratories spanning from Israel, Europe, Cornell and UCD personnel and resources were used to identify, determine function, and determine interaction among these foreign genes and then to insert them into the tomato in separate breeding programs, each with their own tools, and each who may or may not have given full disclosure, Lycospersicum esculentum now usually known as Solanum lycopersicum (Similar to humans and chimps and potentially humanzees, where the genus is still the subject of some scientific debate and the organisms very closely related).

Due to the GMO backlash, breeding is a very misunderstood science and the boundaries are certainly blurred. Academic scientists patent intellectual property genetic material such as Indigo Rose and their institutions require royalties in profit mode also blur the lines. It is common for commercial corporations to get wild material to introgress into domesticated species.

And yes, “Indigo Rose” proved the researchers hypotheses based on biotech/genetic analysis that in concert, the three genes could be introgressed into tomato and would result into inserting the necessary genes to give purple color to the tomato fruit epidermis. The conventional breeding they talk about was done by taking the introgression tomato lines from other research programs, each with their own history, and crossing them without microbial vectors used to make GMOs, and selecting to be sure all three genes were present with advanced biotechnology techniques.

It is unfortunate that anyone in academia would not utilized an instance like this to better education the public on the techniques that were used in developing such an interesting tomato, and insist that it is "conventional" which has no definition except what the writer want in the moment to a confused public hungry for details and critique.

Luckily, there are free choices. You are free like some Amish, not to take medication or have surgery, etc.

Solanum lycopersicoides
Solanum chilense
Solanum cheesemanii

&&&&&&

Conventional breeding to most folks, including myself, means not developing a variety by the use of the introduction of genes from another genus/ species.

Which would make it a GMO as is the one from England. All accessions used to initially develop OSU 20, then to P20 are in the family Solanaceae, genus Solanum, and that includes the wild species that were most important to developing Indigo Rose,

The most important link I have I linked to below so it is ASAP clickable. It's from Keith Mueller's website which I've linked to many times here since it a treasure in many ways. Keith got his MS from Dr. Randy Gardner from NCSU, now retired, but is still breeding tomatoes and many of you probably already know of his Mountain series and so many more.

Keth has bred some wonderful varieties such as Purple Haze F1, Liz Birt, Bear Creek, and many more that have become very popular and has been working with many projects such as what he calls Lucky Sun, an initial cross between Lucky Cross, the stable gold/red bicolor and Sungold F1.

Keith, IMO, knows more tomato genetics across the board than many such geneticists in academic positions who usually focus on just one area.

When you click on that second link below the FAQ one that I mentioned above, you'll see that there were many other parental inputs, many accessions from the TGRC at UC Davis in CA. Tomato breeders can request accessions but have to document their accomplishments to date and what they want those accessions for.

Several years ago I asked a former friend who was going to the Galapagos Islands to please bring me back seeds for S cheesmanii, she sent me whole fruits that were not cheesmanii. Since I knew the island they came from I called the TGRC and spoke with Dr. Chatelet who told me that what I had was a stable cross between a currant tomato and now I forgot the other parent.

That variety was named, not by me, Sara's Galapagos and is still one of my fave wee fruited varieties.

The TGRC is THE main source of accessions ( genes) for tomato breeders all over the world

Indigo Rose I have not tasted, but was sent fruits of P20 which I did. And hopefully someone will be able to finally introduce some decent taste into a so called blue variety with the anti-oxidants that was the reason Dr. Myers started this whole project all those many years ago.

Indigo Rose

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Development+of+Indigo+Rose+tomato

For those still interested in Idigo Rose development, in the above link no need to look at where the seeds are sold, rather,look at the OSU link as well as the Wiki link as well, etc.

Hope the above helps,

Carolyn