Are white strawberries genetically modified fruits?

Strawberry, a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Fragaria in the Rosaceae family, is not only sweet and sour, but also rich in nutrition. It is a fruit that many people like to eat. However, in most people's impression, strawberries are mostly red, and they rarely come across strawberries of other colors. But do you know? In recent years, some strawberry varieties with white skin have begun to appear on the market. Some of these white strawberries are pink with white, and some are snow-white. They are very novel, and the fruits also have a special flavor, such as yellow peach, peach and cantaloupe flavor. Therefore, they are highly sought after, resulting in a shortage of products. The price per kilogram reaches hundreds of yuan, becoming a "luxury" among strawberries.

However, despite the rush to buy white strawberries, some people are worried that they are genetically modified strawberries because they are so different in color from the red strawberries we usually eat and have a unique taste. In the face of these doubts, today we will analyze the "origin" of white strawberries from multiple aspects to set the record straight and restore a "clear and bright" world for strawberries.

01

White strawberries, a gift from nature

At present, there are many varieties of white strawberries sold on the market, from the world's first white strawberry variety "First Love Fragrance" to today's "Little White", "Snow White", "White Enchantress", "Light Snow" and "Taoxun" and many other varieties, each with a different flavor. However, these new varieties are not genetically modified. Most of them are natural mutations of strawberry color turning white during strawberry breeding. Because of their excellent traits, they were preserved and then cultivated through hybridization and other breeding methods, resulting in the birth of these white strawberry varieties.

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In fact, strawberry is a berry plant that is very easy to mutate. When strawberries are rapidly propagated through tissue culture using their various organs, tissues and cells, tissue culture somatic cell asexual line variation will occur, which is what we often call tissue culture variation. There are many reasons for this frequent variation, such as external reasons : explant type, plant genotype, hormone type and ratio, subculture time and number, etc., and internal reasons : chromosome abnormalities, transposon activation and gene mutation, etc., and white strawberries are the color change caused by gene mutation.

The red color of strawberries comes from the accumulation of anthocyanins in the vacuole. Due to the different anthocyanin contents, strawberries will show obvious color changes. The more anthocyanins, the redder the strawberries, and vice versa. After a certain period of in vitro culture of strawberry cells, the bases in the genome will be methylated, thus affecting gene expression. DNA methylation is closely related to gene expression. Changes in methylation levels can affect the activity of transcription factors, thereby inhibiting the expression of genes such as anthocyanin biosynthesis, resulting in a reduction in the anthocyanin content of strawberries, which leads to natural variation and the production of white strawberries that can be stably inherited in self-pollinated offspring.

Therefore, these mutations are all naturally occurring during cultivation and have nothing to do with genetic modification, so they can be eaten without worry. However, it is worth mentioning that tissue culture mutations can be good or bad, but most are harmful mutations, and only a very small number are beneficial mutations, and white strawberries are one of the very few beneficial mutations. This type of strawberry is unique in flavor and taste, and is quite different from the common red strawberries. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that white strawberries are a gift from nature.

02

Current Status of Strawberry Breeding in China

Nowadays, the safety of genetically modified products is still controversial in all walks of life. Some people are afraid that genetically modified products will cause health problems, so they are very curious about whether there are genetically modified strawberries in the various strawberry varieties currently sold in the Chinese market. In fact, hybrid breeding has always been the main breeding method in the selection of strawberry varieties worldwide. According to the Chinese strawberry variety approval information, from 1953 to 2018, a total of 112 strawberry varieties were cultivated in 65 years, of which 98 were bred through hybridization, and the remaining 14 were new varieties bred through traditional breeding methods such as seed selection, mutation breeding and bud mutation selection. Therefore, no genetically modified strawberries have been approved for sale in China.

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In addition, China has always adopted a strict management system for genetically modified foods. For the healthy development of genetically modified foods and the health of people's diet, China has successively formulated a series of laws and regulations to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people. For example, there are the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms", "Administrative Measures for the Safety Assessment of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms" and "Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China", which have established a complete set of strict and scientific review systems for genetically modified foods. The law stipulates that genetically modified products can only be approved for use after they have fully passed the strict safety and health assessment procedures.

It is precisely because China has implemented such a strict review process that since the world's first genetically modified plants were successfully planted in 1983, genetically modified crops have been rapidly developed around the world for 40 years. However, China has currently approved only two types of genetically modified crops for industrial use: cotton and papaya. Other genetically modified plants have not yet been approved for production. Therefore, the information on the Internet that many strawberries are cultivated with genetically modified technology is a rumor, please do not believe it.

So, in summary, white strawberries are not genetically modified, but a gift from nature to mankind. They are unwilling to be "ordinary" and have produced genetic mutations in their growth and reproduction in nature. At the same time, under the interaction of light and temperature, they have changed from red to white. This reflects the wonder and richness of nature, so people can taste these strawberries if their financial conditions allow and experience the magic and charm of nature firsthand.

References:

[1] Hu Panpan, Zhao Xia, Li Gang, Li Liangjie, Qin Bao, Peng Zhuo, Zhou Houcheng. Study on the somatic cell clone variation of strawberry tissue culture seedlings[J]. Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin, 2016, 32(16):77-82.

[2] Wu Chong, Jiang Lili, Zong Xiaojuan, Wang Xiaofang, Tanaka Kazuhisa. Research progress of strawberry breeding in China[J]. Deciduous Fruit Trees, 2022, 54(02): 28-30.

[3] Wang Chun. White strawberry: the "white, rich and beautiful" strawberry[J]. New Rural Technology, 2016, (06): 47-48.

[4] Zhu Anjun. Analysis on the development of genetically modified agricultural products[J]. Smart Agriculture Guide, 2022, 2(17):79-81.

[5] Zhang Juanjuan. Current status of industrial development of genetically modified crops and regulatory issues[J]. Molecular Plant Breeding, 2022, 20(22): 7469-7473.

[6]Cristina Castillejo et al. Allelic Variation of MYB10 Is the Major Force Controlling Natural Variation in Skin and Flesh Color in Strawberry (Fragaria spp.) Fruit. The Plant Cell Dec 2020, 32 (12) 3723-3749

Author: Li Ting, member of the Chinese Science Writers Association

Review | Wang Kang, Director of the Science Museum of the National Botanical Garden

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