Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7620 / SEEDWORLD.COM FEBRUARY 2017 WHAT DO PEOPLE like about tomatoes? The answer probably isn’t “disease resistance” or “shelf stability.” People like tomatoes for their flavor and texture, says David Liscombe, a research scientist and biochemist at Ontario’s Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, a not-for-profit research institute that pro- motes the horticulture industry in Ontario, Canada. But for too long, taste and other so-called “consumer traits” have been sidelined in favor of production traits when it comes to fruit and vegetable breeding. Consumers have become used to underwhelming supermarket offerings — over-refrigerated, tasteless fruits and vegetables, sometimes accompanied by a mealy texture, he says. Liscombe aims to change that. “Market data shows that consumers are willing to pay more for products that reso- nate with their values, and products they deem have superior flavor,” says Liscombe, who is the lead on a seven-year project that aims to release a superior-tasting tomato-on-the-vine (TOV) hybrid by 2020. Funded in part by the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, six Vineland research groups — in breeding, pathology, applied genomics, biochemis- try, consumer insights and business devel- opment — are all focused on the project. “It’s about understanding from the get-go what consumers like and dislike about tomatoes, and applying all the latest technologies to get us to a tastier tomato, which includes understanding its chemistry and genetics,” says Liscombe. These are ideas that have made progress in the industry during the past decade or so, thanks to the hard work of tomato research groups such as that of Liscombe’s collaborator, Harry Klee of the University of Florida. Klee has been focused on flavor since the 80s. But flavor is a tough nut to crack. Despite advances in equipment and DNA sequencing technology, which help Great taste is back on the agenda for fruit and vegetable breeders. Julienne Isaacs UNLOCKING THE SCIENCE OF TASTE AND THE ART OF FLAVOR breeders zoom in on the genetics behind great-tasting tomatoes, taste is complex. Tomato aroma is influenced by sugars, acids and volatile chemicals, which — pre- sent in different ratios in different varieties — can have dramatically different impacts on the palate. The tomato fruit, explains Liscombe, makes about 400 different volatile chemi- cals — those that you can smell. Only about 10 percent of these, or about 40, are involved in flavor production. Some of these chemicals are associated with consumers liking a tomato when they are present in the fruit at higher levels, but tomatoes can also produce volatiles that make them less appealing. The same principle goes for texture, which Liscombe says consumers find at least, or more important, as flavor in tomatoes. In the past, breeders were limited to working on just a few traits at a time, due to the fruit’s complexity.