Simpsons Fan Creates Real Tomacco Plant

An anonymous reader writes "So, according to a KPTV newscast, a Simpsons fan with too much time on his hands grafted a tobacco plant and a tomato plant and, ta-da: tomacco! Leaves and most likely the fruit (yes, tomato is a fruit technically) contain nicotine. Delicious AND deadly!" Simpsonschannel.com has a small news piece on the breakthrough, but in a Frink-like move, although scientists have found "nicotine in the leaves", it turns out "the lab hasn't tested if the actual tomato has nicotine in it yet, but they say it probably does."

Comments

Retraction

[Godeke]

I do find it interesting that the linked site has a retraction of the "Fox News is going to sue us" story. Perhaps a slashback is in order?

Playing God, with hilarious results.

[Sheetrock]

Genetic engineering/splicing seems to rile some folks, but I think it offers some interesting insight into the potential for ecosystems by design.

As I understand it, evolution/natural selection is the natural effect when beings are subjected to adversity: only the strong survive. Thinking about this, it becomes clear that in a model where evolution is the sole factor traits that affect survival are gradually weeded out over time because those without such traits are more likely to survive. So too beings that experienced beneficial mutation are likely to preserve such traits.

But this article raises an interesting consideration. When I was in junior high, we took a brief field trip to collect pond water to view under microscopes, and one of the most interesting things was how those little critters with the thing called a flagellum would zoom around. This article brings up the point that this device, which is not exclusive to pond scum, is "irreducibly complex": it is made up of several parts, none of which separately would be of beneficial use to the creature employing it (in fact, such a creature would probably die off under natural selection.) The odds of a mutation creating all parts simultaneously are astronomical, and consequently, the only accepted theory that can sanely describe such a thing is intelligent design, which has been hinted at in many different real-life examples as well as probabistically explained by Pascal's Wager.

This theory is currently derided and discriminated against in favor of older theories, mind you, much as Galileo was in favor of the theory that the Earth was flat, because it threatens to dredge up the uncomfortable unknown. But like any theory, the more evidence that is found to support it particularly to the exclusion of existing theories, the more likely it is correct. So as skeptical as I am of intelligent design, I can't help but notice how much of our biological model it predicts. Has anybody heard anything more about this?

Re:Playing God, with hilarious results.

[homer_ca]

That creationist argument is debunked here (number 15):

"Yet evolutionary biologists have answers to these objections. First, there exist flagellae with forms simpler than the one that Behe cites, so it is not necessary for all those components to be present for a flagellum to work. The sophisticated components of this flagellum all have precedents elsewhere in nature, as described by Kenneth R. Miller of Brown University and others. In fact, the entire flagellum assembly is extremely similar to an organelle that Yersinia pestis, the bubonic plague bacterium, uses to inject toxins into cells."

What the hell...

[madmarcel]

Did I miss something?

Is it the 1st of April?

Surely you are pulling my leg yes?

Splicing/grafting plants together is not that hard, but I thought this could only be done with plants of the same eh..family.

Re:What the hell...

[Isaac-Lew]

Splicing/grafting plants together is not that hard, but I thought this could only be done with plants of the same eh..family.

According to http://www.museums.org.za/bio/plants/solanaceae/, tomatoes & tobacco are both in the same family (Solanaceae), along with potatoes, peppers and eggplants. I don't know how closely they have to be related for splicing/grafting tho.

Re:What the hell...

[dfn_deux]

This was later tested and disproved, it seems that THC is only produced in the buds and leaves of marijuana and as such grafting hops onto a marijuana root stock produces no measurable THC.

They are.

[benjamindees]

They are both nightshades.

Tomato plants can get the Tobacco Mosaic virus, too.

This is possible because. . .

[kfg]

the tomato and tobacco are both variaties of nightshade, as is the potato.

All of these plants already contain nicotine, so of course he found them, and various other alkaloids. The only question is the concentration and where that concentration is.

You'll also find nicotine in things you might not expect, like bananas, beef, cow's milk and cottage cheese.

Eat a tomato leaf, potato leaf, or even the wrong parts of a potato and you can end up, very, very dead.

Enjoy your fries and ketchup.

KFG

Re:This is possible because. . .

[iggymanz]

I've seen that in health-nut sites & rags, but as biologists classify things, there is a very large family Solanaceae, which has genus Nicotiana (including those bad Nicotiana Tabacum species), and genus Solanum, which includes over 1400 species including the beloved spud & tomatoes. So really not too closely related.....I suspect many health nuts were dropping too much LSD in the 60's instead of paying attention in biology class.

-1 offtopic

[WolfWithoutAClause]

If the poster had actually read the article he would know that the article talks about grafting, not gene splicing. Grafting is an ancient technique invented by the chinese and is used for those highly dangerous things like apple trees, roses and grapes. It involves sticking different roots on things, typically from the same or a related species/variety.

In this case he has grafted a tomato plant on a tobacco root.

Re:Tomato is legally a veggie (in the US at least)

[Quixotic Raindrop]

So is corn; it's botanically a fruit (in fact, an achene, IIRC), and nutritionally a starch, but nearly always treated as a vegetable. Just because the Supreme Court can't be bothered to do the Right Thing(tm) doesn't mean that we should tolerate it. Take back the tomato! Demand the fruits of justice!

Idiot

[Teahouse]

This is a hybrid. It was created by grafting the roots of a tobacco plant with the stem of a tomato plant. Both are in the nightshade genus, so they grafted OK. This is not a seeding, or reproducing plant. It's a single freak. Thereis no genetic engineering involved, just plain old grafting, a practice that has ben practiced safely for over 1500 years. Get a life freak!

This is sooo old news! The Reds beat us to it!

[G4from128k]

Its common knowledge that tomatos can be grafted on to a wide range of plants in the Solanum family including potatoes, tobacco, Datura, etc. In fact the Russians made a tomacco back in 1956 (See Glavinic, R., 1956 (Vegetative hybridization between tomato and tobacco). Priroda (Nature), Leningrad No. 11: 98-100. (Russian)).

Now if we only had only had slashdot back in 1956.....

Re:Tomato is legally a veggie (in the US at least)

[cens0r]

Corn is a grass, and is classified along with the other grasses: oats, wheat, barley, etc. I guess you could call the husk a fruit but since we only eat the seeds I wouldn't.

Re:nicotine itself is good, not the cigarettes tho

[Michael Crutcher]

Nicotine is most definately not good for you. It constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. Unless you're shooting for a heart attack I'd avoid nicotine.

A graft is not a genetic change

[sam_handelman]

I can't believe no one mentioned this already (I searched the comments page.)

In a graft, which is what has been done here, you stick the stem of one plant (tomato in this case) onto the root of another (tobacco in this case). If the two plants are closely related (as are tomatoes and tobacco,) the hybrid plant will grow and survive; often, chemicals (nicotine in this case) will move in the sap from the roots to the leaves (and presumably fruit.)

This is NOT a genetic change. If you took these "tomacco" seeds and planted them, they'd grow into regular tomatoes. Making the genetic changes required for tomatoes to actually make their own nicotine (which would breed true,) is an entirely different and more complicated prospect.

A few points

[Nicolas MONNET]

• Nicotine, when not smoked, is not /that/ bad. Cigarettes are highly addictive because of it, but most of its deadly effects (cancer, mainly) are not due to it, rather to combustion byproducts.
• Nicotine is very addictive in cigarettes, slightly less so in cigars and pipe, and less so when chewed, because its addictivity varies depending on how much time it takes for it to reach the brain. That's about 7s IIRC with cigarettes. Uptake much slower through other ways.
• It's been experimented succesfully as a replacement for Ritalin / amphetamines in treating ADHD in the form of patch in children.
• Nicotine is destroyed in the stomach. That's why nicotine replacements for quitting smokeing have to go through other means: skin (patches) or mouth tissue (gum and sublingual pills).

Re:A few points

[Swanktastic]

Nicotine is very addictive in cigarettes, slightly less so in cigars and pipe, and less so when chewed, because its addictivity varies depending on how much time it takes for it to reach the brain. That's about 7s IIRC with cigarettes. Uptake much slower through other ways.

This may be, but a pinch of chewing tobacco contains about 3-5 times as much nicotine as a cigarette. People who dip don't even feel the effects from smoking one little cigarette.

toxic

[KerPow]

Here is a nice link about why they would be toxic: Toxicity

Re:A few points in REALITY

[I-R-Baboon]

Nicotine is actually a poison . Before downplaying the intake of poison I would learn the facts. As for cigarettes and the diseaes they help bring on learn about how they get those little numbers on their packs before thinking you are any less exposed.

Course, you could just prove it all wrong by soaking a pack or two of cigarettes in 32oz of water and chugging it after cutting off your phone service and access to medical help.