Italian scientists are creating a genetic database to conserve the taste and smells of Italy's different tomato varieties, the National Research Council (CNR) said Tuesday.
The genes of the San Marzano plum tomato and the pink Sorrento tomato are among those that will be recorded for posterity in the database as part of Italy's Plants for the Future project.
''We are trying to link genes and proteins to specific flavours, smells and colours in the tomato varieties that are typical of the Italian regions in the centre and south,'' explained Stefania Grillo of CNR's Plant Genetics Institute.
Universities across Italy are participating in the Plants for the Future project, which aims to help solve the global food crisis through biotechnology techniques, creating plants that have higher resistance to disease and climatic conditions but concentrating on 'traditional' Italian crops.
''It be possible to increase the quantity of products requested by the food industry while offering consumers healthier products with a higher nutritional quality that are less expensive,'' said the platform's scientific coordinator Roberto Tuberosa.
Researchers at the universities of Verona and Udine are mapping the genomes of the Corvina and Tocai vines and will then study the functions of genes that play a part in the principal phases of vine maturation.
Reacting to the presentation of the Plants for the Future project, the Association of Biotechnology Companies (Assobiotec) called on the government to restart experimentation in the field of genetically modified organisms (GMO).
According to Assobiotec, the global price of food is increasing while Italy has ''abandoned scientific research on food products able to lead to the selection of more productive and resistant species''.
The issue of genetically modified crops - as opposed to 'natural' hybridization - is particularly explosive in Italy, and the traditional stance of Italian governments has been one of blanket opposition to biotech products in any form.
The new government appears to have softened this stance.
Nevertheless, as the largest producer of organic crops in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, there is a widespread fear in Italy of the potential damage resulting from accidental GM contamination.
A 2007 poll by the National Food and Nutrition Research Institute found that 82% of Italy's farmers would refuse to grow GM crops on their land if given the choice, while eight out of ten consumers distrust them, describing them as ''less natural''.
