Thread: red skin
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Old May 18, 2016   #28
Darren Abbey
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Minnesota
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Hrmm. Yes, it is definitely not "red". I still wonder if there is lycopene there at a lower level. If there is a codominant effect going on, then I would expect the F2s to be: 50% dark-orange skin, 25% red skin, 25% normal skin.
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The normal yellow pigment in tomato skin is naringenin chalcone, which is derived from the flavinoid pathway. I've been thinking of researching the genetics of the flavinoid, to see if there are some common regulation steps that might explain redskin [when mutated]. One detail that I've found is that the flavinoid pathway is much less active in the flesh of the fruit compared to the skin (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2788616/). (This might help explain the localization of flavinoid-derived anthocyanins in the Aft/atv tomatoes.) The carotenoid pathway is normally active in the flesh and not the skin... I'm kinda rambling here, as I've been thinking about this topic but don't yet have any real conclusions that might be informative.
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