Researcher Lucas van der Zee pushes aside a gray curtain. There they are, are cultivated tomatoes. They are perfectly round, look like a small cherry tomato. Because they are not yet ripe, they are still green. According to Van der Zee, they are comparable to a tomato in terms of taste. “One tasted a bit mealy. But we can still taste that tweak.”
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Van der Zee has been working on growing a tomato from cells for seven years, without the need for plants. And now they have come up with a system that makes it possible.
“I’m quite concerned about climate change, but also about food safety. If the climate changes, it will become more difficult to grow food. In the meantime, I read a lot about cultured meat. When I was in college I thought: couldn’t you also grow a tomato?”
The cultivated tomatoes from the study. © Sjef Prins
When he looked into it, he discovered that research had already been done in the 1950s. In that study they had cut off a flower from the tomato plant. When the researcher grew it on a plate with water, sugar and minerals, he saw that a fruit emerged.
“I found that fascinating, that it can just grow without being on the plant. Furthermore, no other company or scientist was working on it yet, so then I thought: I have to do this.”
‘Out of the box’
Horticulture professor Leo Marcelis was pleasantly surprised when his student came to him with the idea. “This is real out of the box. I haven’t heard it before. Of course I had doubts, because there are many obstacles in the way, but I saw the possibilities. Lucas was extremely motivated and he had thought about it carefully.”
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After much research, Van der Zee from Wageningen University and Niels Peeters from Utrecht University wrote an article for the scientific journal Trends in Biotechnology.
“Unlike an animal, a plant can generate a new plant from every piece of tissue,” Van der Zee explains. “Just like with a cutting: if you put it in water, roots will grow from it and it will slowly become a plant. We take a cutting, but we don’t let a plant grow from it. We convince it that it has to make a flower. That is the great scientific trick.”
Flower makes a flower again
According to the researchers, this can be done in two ways. You take a piece of tissue that was already a flower. This tissue knows this and will make another flower. The other way is with genetic engineering, which Peeters does, by switching on certain signals in the cell that tell it to grow into a flower. “Everything else goes by itself. All we have to do is provide water, sugar and minerals,” says Van der Zee.
This creates a cultivated tomato in four months, with the same minerals, vitamin C and sugars as a normal tomato. However, the fruits remain small, possibly because they stop growing as soon as there is no longer a plant on them; normally the plant gives the signal to continue growing.
“We need to do more research into this,” says Peeters. “We are now doing it with cherry tomatoes, but they are naturally small. We could also do it with coeur de boeuf tomatoes.”
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‘Endless possibilities’
The possibilities for growing fruit and vegetables are endless. The researchers hope that many colleagues will also start experimenting.
Professor Marcelis thinks it is very special that he has managed to grow fruits in a completely different way. However, he tempers expectations, because this is not something that will be applied in practice tomorrow. “There are still many steps to be taken if we want to do this on a large scale.”
Marcelis does not think that this will replace current tomato cultivation, but mainly sees it as a solution for plants that are struggling due to the changing climate. “Think of coffee or cocoa. A lot of money is also paid for,” Van der Zee agrees.
Leo Marcelis finds it very special that his student has managed to grow fruits in a completely different way. © Sjef Prins
Save on labor costs
Growing tomatoes this way will probably also save a lot on labor costs. For example, tomato pickers are no longer needed. Van der Zee: “There is a great need to automate that manual work, often under less favorable conditions. We are also trying to find solutions for this at Wageningen University.”
Van der Zee hopes that his findings will soon be applied on a wide scale. “So that by 2040, for example, cherries, cocoa beans and raspberries will be grown in various cities around the world.”