Does Your Salad Know What Time It Is? “Vegetables and fruits don’t die the moment they are harvested,” said Rice biologist Janet Braam. “They respond to their environment for days, and we found we could use light to coax them to make more cancer-fighting antioxidants at certain times of day.” Braam is professor and chair of Rice’s Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Braam’s team simulated day-night cycles of light and dark to control the internal clocks of fruits and vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, squash and blueberries. In the cabbage experiments, Braam, Goodspeed and John Liu, Zhengji “Jim” Sheng and Wassim Chehab found they could manipulate cabbage leaves to increase their production of anti-insect metabolites at certain times of day. Zhengji Jim Sheng prepares to place samples of lettuce and caterpillars in a chamber with controlled lighting. When the circadian clock of the lettuce matches that of the caterpillar, the leaves are less likely to be eaten. One of these, an antioxidant called glucoraphanin, or 4-MSO, is a known anti-cancer compound that has been previously studied in broccoli and other vegetables. Braam’s team has already begun follow-up research, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, into whether light and other stimuli, like touch, may be used to enhance pest resistance of food crops in developing countries.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 13:38:38 +0000
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