Tomato plants are producing flavonoids, anti-oxidants that may be good for our health. But how are tomatoes doing that? Anyone who could answer that question could ultimately control the production of such substances. Researchers at Plant Research International are working on it.
Flavonoids are affecting taste and colour of plants, fruits and flowers. These substances are assumed to be good for humans because they work as anti-oxidants. This is why scientists are searching for ways to increase the concentration in the plant. And then it would be useful to know how flavonoids are produced. Our scientists are unravelling the path followed by the tomato to arrive at the production of flavonoids.
Successive reactions
Production follows several reactions during which the one substance is transformed into the next, which is then in turn transformed into another, etc. It is important to know the process of the successive reactions, whether by-products are formed during a certain transformation, or whether a reaction progresses rapidly or – conversely – slowly, and which products are formed along the way to flavonoids.
Scientists are collaborating intensively at various levels to find the answers to these questions. In laboratory experiments tomato plants are grown under various conditions. Via mass spectrography the researchers are identifying thousands of different substances that are found in the different growth stages of the plant. A mathematician is analysing the interrelation between the various substances and records this into ‘networks’. Such a network shows whether one substance is converted into another; a possible correlation may, e.g., exist if the concentration of one substance is decreasing whereas the other decreases.
Mathematical equations
The next step is to check whether the behaviour of those networks is corresponding with the observations in the experiments. Mathematical equations enable description whether substance A is increasing and substance B is decreasing. Analysis of these equations and comparison of behaviour with the experimental data enables the researchers to derive how tomato plants are producing flavonoids. They are also looking at the different parts of the plant and at the effect of, e.g., light on the production of flavonoids.
Such a theoretical approach of how tomato plants are producing flavonoids is unique in the world and is only possible thanks to the intensive interaction between experiments in the lab and the mathematicians.