Carrots have always been synonymous with its bright orange color and now scientists know why.
Researchers have discovered a gene in the carrot after a complete decoding of its genome sequence. The gene named DCAR_032551, is responsible for carotenoids – a source of vitamin A and the pigment that gives fruit and vegetables a bright orange, yellow or red color as reported in Discovery News.
Philipp Simon who is a research geneticist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Wisconsin, led the study and has been researching carrots for 35 years. The question of how carrots obtain their bright orange color from carotenoids which is a source of healthy vitamin A for humans, has been unanswered until now.
“The accumulation of orange pigments is an accumulation that normally wouldn’t happen,” says Simon, “Now, we know what the genes are and what they do. The carrot has a good reputation as a crop and we know it’s a significant source of nutrition — vitamin A, in particular. Now, we have the chance to dig deeper and it’s a nice addition to the toolbox for improving the crop.”
The scientists involved in the study compared 37 common varieties to wild carrots that are usually white in color. Interestingly, the first carrots were a purple and yellow color back in Asia over 1000 years ago and the more common orange carrot did not appear until the 16th century in Europe. The researchers believe that carrot farmers selected the more colorful orange carrots to differentiate between crops and in doing so unknowingly cultivated the amount of vitamin A in the new orange carrot crops.
Global crop production has boomed over the past 40 years with most countries eating the root vegetable and contain 50 percent more carotene thanks to carrot breeding.
The study was published this week in Nature Genetics.