Flower Power

"I’m going to be in jail for committing tomato Ponzi," says Zachary Lippman in a New York Times piece by Robin Finn (8/22/10). Zach probably won’t be going to jail, but he may be laughing all the way to the bank once his research into tomato genetics bears, um, fruit. Zach and his team at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have figured out how to "make a tomato plant increase its yield by half and simultaneously sweeten its produce."

But they’re doing it not with "genetically modified tricks" but rather as Mother Nature intended. The process involves "manipulating a single copy of a mutant gene … known as S.F.T. (single flower truss)." Called the "flower power gene" it "tells plants when and how many flowers to generate." The hope is that one day any gardener with a packet of Zach’s superseeds could produce a bumper crop, not to mention the commercial potential of sweeter, more plentiful tomatoes.

There’s also the possibility of manipulating melons and soybeans in similar fashion. "If this technology can be transferred to other species it could be quite valuable, and that’s what Zach is working on now," says Bruce Stillman, president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Zach’s fellow scientists may not be so impressed though; a group of them recently greeted him with shouts of, "Hey Zach, nice tomatoes!" But Zach is undaunted: "If I had a million dollars, I’d start a seed company tomorrow," he says. A patent on his mutant seeds is pending.