A precision-bred tomato variety that produces up to 400% more fruit over one year than conventional tomatoes could be a breakthrough crop for precision breeding in the UK.
Precision breeding company Phytoform Labs has developed the tomato, a miniaturized version of the elite variety Ailsa Craig, which can produce a kilogram of fruit from a plant one-sixth of the typical size for tomatoes. The crop is tailored to the needs of vertical farms, where fresh produce is grown indoors under controlled conditions.
UK consumers eat around 500,000 tonnes of tomatoes each year and that number is rising. Just 70,000 tonnes are produced domestically, with most imported from the Mediterranean. There is a substantial opportunity for British growers to shorten the supply chain for this much-loved crop — however, practicalities can get in the way.
Dr Nicholas Kral and Dr William Pelton stand with the tomatoes
Until now, vertical farms have tended to focus on leafy greens, which are small and require very low maintenance. Typical growing heights in vertical farms are around 15-25 inches (approx. 40-60cm), meaning tomato plants, which can exceed that size in a month before producing fruit, have been considered impractical.
Some dwarf tomato varieties are available and have been widely used as a model in scientific research, but the flavor of the fruit has generally been unappealing. Faced with the lack of options for growers, and with few breeders working with dwarf varieties, Phytoform Labs, based at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, stepped up to the challenge.
Dr Antony Chapman, the company's lead tomato genome engineer said: "With dwarf varieties, almost every single trait is bad, except for the size. Instead, we decided to make elite varieties into dwarfs, starting with something good and going from there – that's how we came up with this vertical farming tomato."
The new variety can fit in three growth cycles a year, compared to conventional tomatoes that only have a single cycle, and growers can fit between 50 and 100 plants in a single square meter, enabling them to produce 150-300kg/m² – up to a 400% increase on conventional varieties.
Vertical farming company Harvest London, which has two farming facilities in Walthamstow and Leyton, has just completed the first phase of a pre-commercial trial using the variety. It has successfully grown hundreds of plants and is now working to optimize growing approaches.
Matt Chlebek, founder and chief agronomist of Harvest London said: "People want super tasty tomatoes, available all year round and not imported thousands of miles. The exciting part of this is Phytoform is breeding something specific for vertical farming that addresses what consumers and growers want."
A second trial is also nearing completion, working alongside Jones Food Company, the UK's largest vertical farming operation, while several farms beyond the UK have shown interest in growing the tomato.
The processes used by Phytoform to develop the plants are an accelerated version of changes that could occur through natural mutations or traditional breeding. Its specialized culturing techniques can grow whole plants from single cells.
Phytoform's chief executive Dr William Pelton stated: "Traditional breeding, where you crossbreed parent plants so that the resulting offspring has superior traits, does work, but it's a very slow process. Things are changing so fast now, both in terms of climate change and human population growth, that I don't think traditional breeding can keep up any longer. The technologies that can dramatically speed up this process are ready to be used and need to get out there."
Regulatory barriers
To date, the speed of technology transfer in crop science has proved a barrier for start-ups in the sector, particularly in the UK and continental Europe.
Change is coming, with the UK's Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act being passed in 2023, but companies are still waiting for measures that will allow the commercial cultivation of precision-bred produce.
Scientists have been able to apply for licenses to grow precision-bred crops since 2022, with Phytoform Labs being one of the most active companies in this area. But Dr Nicolas Kral, the company's chief technology officer, says commercially viable crops such as Phytoform's tomato, which is ready to be sold as soon as legislation allows, are vital to showing the practical impact of crop breeding developments.
"There's little point in changing legislation if you don't have the use cases for the technology," he says. "It can't simply be an academic interest. This product is real; you could be eating it next year, but without steps to enable commercial sales, this technology is just waiting in the wings."
For more information:
Phytoform Labs
phytoformlabs.com