Aromatic modern tomatoes coming

[William Schlegel]

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-aromatic-tomato-looming-la-heirloom.amp

So they found a pathway in Solanum penellii that will allow tomato breeders to ID lines that actually taste good amongst modern tomatoes. Interesting.

[Jeremy Weiss]

As good as this sounds on the surface, this could end up being a double-edged sword.  With modern hybrid tomatoes that taste closer to heirlooms in the market, some of the steam currently in the preservation/breeding of TRUE OP heirlooms (and hence some of the funding, where funding exists) could leave. There is nothing like a modern version that seems to have "no drawbacks" to seriously push all older types WAY into the background.

If you are REALLY paranoid, it also could result in policies changing in those countries that have fairly strict rules on what you can and can't grow (like much of Europe), to no longer grant approvals to new OP's, or even withdraw ones that formerly had them on the grounds that "There is no need for them anymore". 

[William Schlegel]

They also use lingo in the article that conflates traditional breeding with genetic engineering.

Honestly I think with what we know about things like the uniform ripening gene and the fact that we have built in detector systems (sense of smell and taste) for flavor. This is just a smidgeon obnoxious.

We are currently breeding modern tomatoes with good flavor those of us right here on this board. An genetic test might be handy but we can always just use our built in sensors.

[Steph S]

Well... the wonderful thing about tomatoes is the amazing range of flavors.  There's a pretty huge community that saves and exchanges seeds of OP's.  I don't think that will change as long as we have internet and postage services. 

Marker assisted breeding, or even Crispr for one gene for a half dozen related flavor compounds -  it may produce some better tasting tomatoes of commerce.  But I would think there is still a lot more to flavor than that one set of compounds.  So maybe those 'better flavored' will still taste much like one another, and lack the diversity found in OP's.  That's what I would expect.

Someone recently shared a documentary out of France, concerning the loss of nutrients in vegetables due to modern breeding.  Yield increases at the expense of nutrient levels.  The point was also made that flavor is strongly correlated with nutrient levels. 
This article seemed to suggest that flavor could be had without a cost in yield.  If that's the case, and if 'cheap flavor' can be produced in the tomatoes as a camo for the less nutritious quality of the food, that would be concerning to me.

[Adrian]

It obvious that nitrogen components increase taste!
More chloroplasts increase sugar rate.
How they will created tasty fruit with long conservation and high yield ?
It existed a lot of tomatos productives, early and with correct taste as san marzano lungo or marmande or saint pierre.

[AndrewB]

At first I was excited because I thought they had introgressed genes from S. sitiens for aromatic flowers...

But I'm not surprised S. pennellii is being used. It has the most smell chemicals of any of the species and thus more flavor combinations.