Maarten Jongsma of Plant Research International is working on technologies that allow a chip to react to organic material. Eventually one chip may be able to determine the flavor of a tomato.
The flavor technology involves attaching dozens of receptor genes for various flavor molecules to a chip. A layer of human cells is then grown over the chip of which the cells can absorb and express the genes. Finally, a microchannel is pressed over the top. Once the flavor molecules pass the cells via the microchannel, they connect to their own receptor. This results in a signal inside the cell which can be identified by microscope.
Jongsma said the pattern of reactions like a fingerprint tell the specific flavor. He said researchers will need to learn how to interpret the fingerprint. Information from four tomato breeding companies on how human tasters evaluated a tomato is used to study what the fingerprint says about flavor.
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