Fish and dairy are the best dietary sources of vitamin D, which can make it a struggle for those following a plant-based diet to get enough of the essential micronutrient. Vitamin D helps protect our bones and keep our muscles and teeth healthy.
Now, a team of researchers has come up with a potential new, vegan source of vitamin D: the tomato gene edited using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to contain a precursor to vitamin D.
The study found that the provitamin D3 (precursor substance) in a tomato — once converted to vitamin D3 — would be equivalent to the amount of vitamin D3 contained in two medium-sized eggs or 28 grams of tuna.
If the process is adopted commercially by farmers and growers, these tomatoes could help fight vitamin D insufficiency, which the study says affects 1 billion people worldwide.
“This exciting discovery not only improves human health, but contributes to the environmental benefits associated with more plant-based diets – often associated with the challenge of securing some important vitamins and minerals widely found and bioavailable in animal products,” Guy Poppy , professor of ecology at the University of Southampton, to the Science Media Center in London. He was not involved in the research.
Vitamin D supplements are widely available in many countries, but co-author Cathie Martin, a professor at the John Innes Center in Norwich, England, said eating a tomato was “much better than taking a pill.”
“I think having a food source (of vitamin D) in the form of a plant also means you can get additional benefits from eating tomatoes. We don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables anyway. A tomato is a good source of vitamin C too,” she told a news conference.
The study was published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Plants.
sunshine vitamin
The main source of vitamin D for most people is diet, but our bodies also produce the micronutrient when our skin is exposed to UVB light – which is why it is sometimes called the sunshine vitamin. Scientists have harnessed a similar process in tomato plants.
The compound in the skin that can produce vitamin D is known as 7-DHC, or provitamin D3, and is also found in tomato leaves and unripe fruits.
The researchers blocked a gene in tomato plants that normally converts provitamin D3 to cholesterol, which allowed provitamin D3 to accumulate in the ripe tomato fruit.
to convert to provitamin D3 into vitamin D3 that helps our body, tomatoes were treated with UVB light.
A test in the UK is evaluating whether growing tomato plants outdoors, where they would be exposed to natural sunlight, would automatically result in the conversion of 7-DHC to vitamin D3.
The first fruits should ripen by the end of June, Martin said. Tomatoes can also be sun-dried after harvesting, eliminating the need for UVB light treatment, she added.
The UK Parliament passed new legislation earlier this year designed to make it easier to test gene-edited cultures.
other vegetables
The gene-blocking technique, which the researchers are making available free of charge with the publication of the paper, could also be applied to other species of nightshade plants, such as bell peppers, peppers, eggplants and potatoes, Martin said.
Mushrooms can also be a source of vitamin D when treated with UVB light or grown in the wild, according to the researchers. However, these plants did produce vitamin D2, which the paper said was “substantially less bioeffective” than vitamin D3, which comes from meat and dairy.
Also, vitamin D3 supplements are typically not vegan, said Susan Lanham-New, a professor of nutritional science at the University of Surrey in the UK. She was not involved in the study.
“Lanolin, which is the main source (for D3), is extracted from sheep’s wool. The sheep is still alive, so it’s good for vegetarians. But it’s not for vegans and that’s one of the things that makes this study very extraordinary is that you have a D3 source (from a plant),” she said in the statement.
The leaves of gene-edited tomato plants also contained a considerable amount of provitamin D, the researchers said.
They were looking for ways to turn this waste material into vegan vitamin D supplements. The study team hoped this could serve as an incentive for growers to plant and produce the biofortified tomatoes.
The gene-edited tomatoes looked indistinguishable and tasted the same as regular tomatoes, said co-author Jie Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the John Innes Center, and the gene editing did not affect the plan’s growth, development or yield.
Scientists who developed CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology won the Nobel Prize in 2020. The tool is having a major impact on biomedical research, clinical medicine and agriculture.
Like precision scissors, it can target predetermined locations in the genetic material, eliminating a specific gene or inserting new genetic material.
Source: CNN Brasil
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