BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE - Evolution is commonly thought of as a process that creates new and more complicated traits. But this is not always the case.
On the youngest islands of the Galápagos archipelago, wild tomato plants have adapted to their environment by producing toxins identical to those used by their ancestors millions of years ago.
Tomatoes are a part of the nightshade family, which also includes potatoes and aubergines. Many nightshades, including potatoes, produce alkaloids – bitter toxins that protect the plants against predation.
An international team of researchers were studying these alkaloids because – at high concentrations - they are toxic to humans. The team therefore wanted to get a better grip on how plants make them.
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The flip to ancestral alkaloids may be an adaptation to the harsher conditions in the western islands. “The plants may be responding to an environment that more closely resembles what their ancestors faced,” lead author of the study, Dr. Adam Jozwiak tells BBC Wildlife. But he stresses that more research is needed to support this theory.