A second attempt at domesticating the tomato
A It took at least 3,000 years for humans to learn how to domesticate the wild tomato
and cultivate it for food. Now two separate teams in Brazil and China have done it all
over again in less than three years. And they have done it better in some ways, as
the re-domesticated tomatoes are more nutritious than the ones we eat at present.
This approach relies on the revolutionary CRISPR genome editing technique, in
which changes are deliberately made to the DNA of a living cell, allowing genetic
material to be added, removed or altered. The technique could not only improve
existing crops, but could also be used to turn thousands of wild plants into useful
and appealing foods. In fact, a third team in the US has already begun to do this
with a relative of the tomato called the groundcherry.
This fast-track domestication could help make the world’s food supply healthier and
far more resistant to diseases, such as the rust fungus devastating wheat crops.
‘This could transform what we eat,’ says Jorg Kudla at the University of Munster in
Germany, a member of the Brazilian team. ‘There are 50,000 edible plants in the
world, but 90 percent of our energy comes from just 15 crops.’
‘We can now mimic the known domestication course of major crops like rice, maize,
sorghum or others,’ says Caixia Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
‘Then we might try to domesticate plants that have never been domesticated.’
B Wild tomatoes, which are native to the Andes region in South America, produce
pea-sized fruits. Over many generations, peoples such as the Aztecs and Incas
transformed the plant by selecting and breeding plants with mutations* in their
genetic structure, which resulted in desirable traits such as larger fruit.
But every time a single plant with a mutation is taken from a larger population for
breeding, much genetic diversity is lost. And sometimes the desirable mutations
come with less desirable traits. For instance, the tomato strains grown for
supermarkets have lost much of their flavour.
By comparing the genomes of modern plants to those of their wild relatives,
biologists have been working out what genetic changes occurred as plants were
domesticated. The teams in Brazil and China have now used this knowledge to
reintroduce these changes from scratch while maintaining or even enhancing the
desirable traits of wild strains.
* mutations: changes in an organism’s genetic structure that can be passed down to later
generations.
C Kudla’s team made six changes altogether. For instance, they tripled the size
of fruit by editing a gene called FRUIT WEIGHT, and increased the number of
tomatoes per truss by editing another called MULTIFLORA.
While the historical domestication of tomatoes reduced levels of the red pigment
lycopene – thought to have potential health benefits – the team in Brazil managed
to boost it instead. The wild tomato has twice as much lycopene as cultivated ones;
the newly domesticated one has five times as much.
‘They are quite tasty,’ says Kudla. ‘A little bit strong. And very aromatic.’
The team in China re-domesticated several strains of wild tomatoes with desirable
traits lost in domesticated tomatoes. In this way they managed to create a strain
resistant to a common disease called bacterial spot race, which can devastate
yields. They also created another strain that is more salt tolerant – and has higher
levels of vitamin C.
D Meanwhile, Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute in New York state
decided to use the same approach to domesticate the groundcherry or goldenberry
(Physalis pruinosa) for the first time. This fruit looks similar to the closely related
Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana).
Groundcherries are already sold to a limited extent in the US but they are hard to
produce because the plant has a sprawling growth habit and the small fruits fall
off the branches when ripe. Van Eck’s team has edited the plants to increase fruit
size, make their growth more compact and to stop fruits dropping. ‘There’s potential
for this to be a commercial crop,’ says Van Eck. But she adds that taking the
work further would be expensive because of the need to pay for a licence for the
CRISPR technology and get regulatory approval.
E This approach could boost the use of many obscure plants, says Jonathan Jones
of the Sainsbury Lab in the UK. But it will be hard for new foods to grow so popular
with farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops, he thinks.
The three teams already have their eye on other plants that could be ‘catapulted
into the mainstream’, including foxtail, oat-grass and cowpea. By choosing wild
plants that are drought or heat tolerant, says Gao, we could create crops that will
thrive even as the planet warms.
But Kudla didn’t want to reveal which species were in his team’s sights, because
CRISPR has made the process so easy. ‘Any one with the right skills could go to
their lab and do this.’
Questions 14–18
Reading Passage 2 has five sections, A–E.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–E, in boxes 14–18 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 a reference to a type of tomato that can resist a dangerous infection
15 an explanation of how problems can arise from focusing only on a certain type of
tomato plant.
16 a number of examples of plants that are not cultivated at present but could be
useful as food sources
17 a comparison between the early domestication of the tomato and more recent research
18 a personal reaction to the flavour of a tomato that has been genetically edited
Questions 19–23
Look at the following statements (Questions 19–23) and the list of researchers below.
Match each statement with the correct researcher, A–D.
Write the correct letter, A–D, in boxes 19–23 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
19 Domestication of certain plants could allow them to adapt to future environmental
challenges.
20 The idea of growing and eating unusual plants may not be accepted on a large scale.
21 It is not advisable for the future direction of certain research to be made public.
22 Present efforts to domesticate one wild fruit are limited by the costs involved.
23 Humans only make use of a small proportion of the plant food available on Earth.
List of Researchers
A Jorg Kudla
B Caixia Gao
C Joyce Van Eck
D Jonathan Jones
Questions 24–26
Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet.
24 An undesirable trait such as loss of may be caused by a mutation
in a tomato gene.
25 By modifying one gene in a tomato plant, researchers made the tomato three times
its original .
26 A type of tomato which was not badly affected by , and was rich
in vitamin C, was produced by a team of researchers in China.
Stadiums: past, present and future
A Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the
public could watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back as the
ancient Greek and Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great medieval
cathedrals and the grand 19th- and 20th-century railway stations which dominated urban
skylines in later eras. Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism.
Construction costs can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as
the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair. But
this need not be the case. History shows that stadiums can drive urban development and
adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and planners are finding new ways
to adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which became emblematic of modernisation
during the 20th century.
B The amphitheatre* of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators,
is perhaps the best example of just how versatile stadiums can be. Built by the Romans in
90 AD, it became a fortress with four towers after the fifth century, and was then
transformed into a village containing more than 200 houses. With the growing interest in
conservation during the 19th century, it was converted back into an arena for the staging of
bullfights, thereby returning the structure to its original use as a venue for public
spectacles.
Another example is the imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for 30,000
spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40 years before
Rome’s famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is currently considered one of
the world’s prime sites for opera, thanks to its outstanding acoustics.
C The area in the centre of the Italian town of Lucca, known as the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro,
is yet another impressive example of an amphitheatre becoming absorbed into the fabric
of the city. The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was progressively filled with
buildings from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, variously used as houses, a salt depot
and a prison. But rather than reverting to an arena, it became a market square, designed
by Romanticist architect Lorenzo Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain
embedded in the various shops and residences surrounding the public square.
D There are many similarities between modern stadiums and the ancient amphitheatres
intended for games. But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th
century, as stadiums were developed using new products such as steel and reinforced
concrete, and made use of bright lights for night-time matches.
Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only and
surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as accessible to the
general public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban heat.
E But many of today’s most innovative architects see scope for the stadium to help improve
the city. Among the current strategies, two seem to be having particular success: the
stadium as an urban hub, and as a power plant.
There’s a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services that
serve a function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres,
restaurants and bars, children’s playgrounds and green space. Creating mixed-use
developments such as this reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making more
efficient use of land and helping to regenerate urban spaces.
This opens the space up to families and a wider cross-section of society, instead of catering
only to sportspeople and supporters. There have been many examples of this in the UK: the
mixed-use facilities at Wembley and Old Trafford have become a blueprint for many other
stadiums in the world.
F The phenomenon of stadiums as power stations has arisen from the idea that energy
problems can be overcome by integrating interconnected buildings by means of a smart
grid, which is an electricity supply network that uses digital communications technology to
detect and react to local changes in usage, without significant energy losses. Stadiums are
ideal for these purposes, because their canopies have a large surface area for fitting
photovoltaic panels and rise high enough (more than 40 metres) to make use of micro wind
turbines.
Freiburg Mage Solar Stadium in Germany is the first of a new wave of stadiums as power
plants, which also includes the Amsterdam Arena and the Kaohsiung Stadium. The latter,
inaugurated in 2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1.14 GWh of electricity
annually. This reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660 tons and supplies up
to 80 percent of the surrounding area when the stadium is not in use. This is proof that a
stadium can serve its city, and have a decidedly positive impact in terms of reduction of
CO2 emissions.
G Sporting arenas have always been central to the life and culture of cities. In every era, the
stadium has acquired new value and uses: from military fortress to residential village,
public space to theatre and most recently a field for experimentation in advanced
engineering.
The stadium of today now brings together multiple functions, thus helping cities to create a
sustainable future.
Questions 14–17
Reading Passage 2 has seven sections, A–G.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 14–17 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 a mention of negative attitudes towards stadium building projects
15 figures demonstrating the environmental benefits of a certain stadium
16 examples of the wide range of facilities available at some new stadiums
17 reference to the disadvantages of the stadiums built during a certain era
Questions 23 and 24
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.
When comparing twentieth-century stadiums to ancient amphitheatres in Section D,
Which TWO negative features does the writer mention?
A. They are less imaginatively designed.
B They are less spacious.
C They are in less convenient locations.
D They are less versatile.
E They are made of less durable materials.
Questions 25 and 26
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO advantages of modern stadium design does the writer mention?
A offering improved amenities for the enjoyment of sports events
B bringing community life back into the city environment
C facilitating research into solar and wind energy solutions
D enabling local residents to reduce their consumption of electricity
E providing a suitable site for the installation of renewable power generators