Scientists shocked to find that this everyday food is reverse-evolving

In a world where humans increasingly believe they have everything under control, nature always manages to surprise us.

One of the most spectacular and varied natural environments on the planet is the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, a place whose volcanic characteristics create an otherworldly landscape. The islands are best-known for helping Charles Darwin to formulate his notion of natural selection and scientists are still finding novel examples of evolution on the Galapagos.

Incredibly, researchers on the island have found tomatoes that are evolving in reverse. Instead of adapting to more modern or complex forms, they are recovering characteristics that were thought to be lost forever. This information has been revealed in a new study published in Nature Communications and it has stunned evolutionary biologists.

For the first time, a case of reverse evolution in plants has been documented with chemical and genetic precision. Scientists have found evidence of two species of tomato reviving ancient biochemical machinery that gives them characteristics that don’t exist today.

The study focused on two species of wild tomatoes: Solanum cheesmaniae and Solanum galapagense. These are South American plants that were brought to the island, possibly by birds. These tomatoes not only produced alkaloids, but also managed to produce an ancient version of these compounds, which are not found in the modern version.

This phenomenon could have its origin in the environment in which they live, a part of the Galapagos ravaged by extreme conditions. Scientists have suggested that these species of tomato may be recovering certain types of more aggressive defenses against the tough conditions, an evolutionary tweak that could be the difference being survival and death.

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