MELONS that mature at a leisurely pace are the latest product to figure in
the debate over genetically modified foods. The new cantaloupes would keep fresh
for over a month in cold storage.
The trick is to modify the production of ethylene, a gaseous hormone involved
in ripening. Melons produce a sudden burst of ethylene as they ripen, leaving
only a week or so before they become too mushy to sell.
Jean-Claude Pech of the School of Agricultural Engineering in Toulouse,
France, and his colleagues engineered a “backwards” version of the gene for an
enzyme involved in ethylene production, and…
