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Old January 20, 2009   #1
cecilsgarden1958
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Default The original tomato

Here's one for the experts. A guy a work says that the original tomaotoes were of the "black" variety. Is this true and are there any websites to confirm (or deny) this?

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Old January 20, 2009   #2
Fusion_power
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nope. with a couple of caveats.

The genetics tell that tale pretty effectively. The original tomatoes were green. Yellow and red are much later additions to the dna. There is a chart around on the internet showing the biochemical pathway for development of carotenoids. The sequence is pretty simple right up to a split between beta carotene and lycopene. Black tomatoes have a gene that modifies the fruit to retain chlorophyll. In that sense, the black tomato is more like the original than carotenoid versions.

If you want a good idea what the original tomatoes looked like, grow Maxifort rootstock or just about any of the green when ripe cherries.

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Old January 20, 2009   #3
TZ-OH6
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Are you talking wild type for the edible species (I thought they were all red) or for the group of tomato species (the shared ancestor was green)?
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Old January 20, 2009   #4
carolyn137
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TZ-OH6 View Post
Are you talking wild type for the edible species (I thought they were all red) or for the group of tomato species (the shared ancestor was green)?
There are now 11 or 12 species known, some just IDed in the past couple of years.

The only edible ones are:

S. lycopersicon ( or some use esculentum as the species name

S.pimpinellifolium, the currant tomatoes

S. cheesmanii, which few folks grow

Several years ago I was sent seeds for what was called Botanique Originale. I got huge plants with the most beautiful yellow blossoms that never set fruits.

At the time Craig and I were publishing OTV, the newsletter about heurloom tomatoes, and Craig had recebntkly interviewed Dr. Rock, who did all the work on the various orogonal species found in the higlnads of Chile and Peru, so I called him about this.

It was only then that I discovered that many of the species are self infertile and thus began my interest in the various species and what they're used for in breeding, etc.

Of late I've been interacting with Dr Esther Van der Knaap
who has been looking into the evolution of tomato shapes and more. There was an article and cover picture about her work in a Scientific American that appeared either last year or the year before.

We still don't know for sure which of the original species went from S America to Mexico, or how, or when the first red fruited cherry tomato appeared as it did in Mexico.
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