Official News page 7

REAL LIFE NEWS: NO MORE TEARS

by Hazed

Scientists have come up with an onion that doesn't make you cry. They have used biotechnology developed in Australia to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that brings on the tears. The research institute Crop and Food in New Zealand pioneered the breakthrough, using gene-silencing technology, and hope their work could lead to a prototype onion hitting the shelves of a supermarket near you in about ten years.

It was thought that the agent in onions that brings tears to the eyes was produced spontaneously by cutting into one, but a few years ago, Japanese scientists discovered it was controlled by an enzyme. The new techniques developed have the ability to insert DNA into onions, and have created a sequence that switches off the tear-inducing gene so the enzyme doesn't get produce. No more tears.

Colin Eady, the institute's senior scientist, said that by stopping sulphur compounds from being converted to the tearing agent, and by instead redirecting them into compounds responsible for flavor and health, the onion could even end up tasting better! "What we're hoping is that we'll essentially have a lot of the nice, sweet aromas associated with onions without that associated bitter, pungent, tear-producing factor," he said.

News of the discovery was featured in the December issue of the magazine Onion World. I'm not making this up, there really is such a periodical, and its website is here. International onion news at your fingertips. What more could you want?

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