Esther van der Knaap can grow tomatoes that don't . . . well, look like tomatoes. The produce aisle may never be the same.

A team led by the Ohio State University crop scientist cracked a genetic code controlling the shape of tomatoes. The newly discovered gene, labeled SUN, stretches out the traditionally round fruit, according to study results published this month in the journal Science.

The researchers created some "bizarrely elongated" specimens during plant-transformation experiments using the gene, said van der Knaap, an assistant professor of horticulture.

One traditionally round tomato's length grew to four times the fruit's width: "That was freaky," she admitted.

Marvin Fong/The Plain DealerTomatoes with the SUN gene stretch out longer than usual in OSU's Wooster greenhouse.

Yet tantalizing.

The impact of the finding could move well beyond scholarly genome discussions among folks within the scientific community. The benefits of dictating fruit shape could surface in restaurants, on grocery store shelves and at the lunchtime salad bar.

Consider this whopper of a concept: A longer tomato -- think cucumber length -- could be ideal for burger joints, providing more slices per piece of fruit to top that sizzling all-beef patty.

"There are very practical applications," both for consumers and for the food industry, van der Knaap said.

Her 10-year study isn't the first case of tomato tinkering. Thousands of years ago, the "wild" fruit grew as green pea-size berries more suitable for hungry birds than for human diners. Then mankind stepped in, starting a shape-shifting process that led the tomato to the kitchen counter.

Domestication of the plant probably started with someone harvesting seeds from the larger berries and replanting. Over time and with increased intervention, the fruit evolved into numerous varieties of all shapes and sizes -- from the small oval Roma to the meaty round Beefeater.

The explanation for these genetic transformations -- the "how" behind the "wow" -- long puzzled researchers. Isolating the SUN gene, as van der Knaap's team accomplished at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster, provides insight into that process.

Basically, it's DNA evidence into a garden mystery.

The information could apply to other fruit and vegetable crops, van der Knaap said. SUN, named for the variety of tomato in which it was found, stands as only the second fruit-shaping gene to be identified. (A Cornell University plant breeder discovered the first in a pear-shaped tomato variety about eight years ago.)

Van der Knaap envisions the research eventually spurring creation of "designer fruit," odd-shaped edibles that catch the eye of curious produce shoppers and end up in the cart.

With more research, familiar products could assume much different forms. Round bananas, anyone?

"How far this can extend, I don't know," van der Knaap said. "But this can happen in the future. I'm sure of it."

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