Full Text:
Tomatoes are already an ideal model species for plant research, but National Science Foundation-funded scientists just made them even more useful by cutting the time required to modify their genes by six weeks. While looking for ways to make tomatoes and other crop plants more productive, the researchers developed a better method for “transforming” a tomato -- a process that involves inserting DNA into the tomato genome and growing a new plant.
By adding the plant hormone auxin to the medium that supports the growth of the cells, they can speed up the plant’s growth, ultimately accelerating the pace of their research.Image credit: Sheryl Sinkow, Boyce Thompson Institute
