Tomatoes: The Resilient Fruit

At Food52, we're a little obsessed with tomatoes. (OK, more than a little). We've discussed the heirloom tomato hype, questioned how to grow better tomatoes, and have shared our best tomato recipes. Given our level of obsession with this fruit, we're keen to make all sorts of wild claims, including that tomatoes are our favorite summer vegetable.

While claiming that the tomato is a vegetable is questionable at best, we've just learned a few more scientific facts about this fruit. According to Daniel Chamovitz of the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy section, tomatoes have about 25% more genes than humans have. More specificially, tomatoes have one gene for normal environmental circumstances and one gene that deals with environmental stresses. Plants are way more sensitive to light than humans, having more than twice the number of genes that encode different types of photoreceptors. In other words, even in harsh lighting or frightening circumstances, tomatoes manage to keep calm and grow on. How cool is that?

So topping our list of reasons we love tomatoes: they are resilient, adapting to their surroundings. Perhaps next time we're stressed at work or frustrated with a new challenge we should try to channel our inner tomato.

Why a Tomato Has Stronger Survival Instincts Than a Human from The Wall Street Journal