Coking and crying almost become synonymous when the dish in question involves onion. This is all about change, albeit in some years to come. Scientists have used the wonders of Genetic modification to create a new race of “tear-free” onions.
Crop and Food, a research institute in New Zealand has used gene silencing to end cooking woes once and for all. Dr Colin Eady, with his collaborators in Japan, is behind this GM onion and he claims that these would not only be tear-free but will also be healthier and tastier.
Unlike the normal genetic modification procedures, this research has undertaken a different approach. The GM has not involved introduction of a foreign gene but one of onion’s gene has been silenced using RNA interference. Onions have a defensive mechanism that’s triggered whenever they are cut or smashed. This involves the release of an enzyme (lachrymatory factor synthase gene) along with amino acid sulphoxides. This enzyme coverts sulphoxides into vapors that on reaching our eyes induce tears.
One of Dr. Eady’s Japanese collaborators had identified this agent in 2002 and after years of testing a prototype has been developed that does not cause tears. However, this does not mean that we’ll have this wonder bio-tech story in our kitchens as yet. Dr Eady says:
If the research progresses well, would like to see them become the household and industry norm within the next decade.
So it is another 10-15 years of this sorry state of affairs. So carry on crying (read cooking) till then. But don’t loose hope. Hopefully, we’ll have the last laugh!
