"Tomatoes in the Galapagos are quietly de-evolving"

[Kadence Luneman]

Interesting...

://phys.org/news/2025-06-tomatoes-galpagos-quietly-de-evolving.amp

"What makes these Galápagos tomatoes interesting isn't just that they make alkaloids, but that they're making the wrong ones, or at least, ones that haven't been seen in tomatoes since their early evolutionary days."

"The researchers analyzed more than 30 tomato samples collected from distinct geographic locations across the islands. They found that plants on eastern islands produced the same alkaloids found in modern cultivated tomatoes. But on western islands, the tomatoes were churning out a different version with the molecular fingerprint of eggplant relatives from millions of years ago."