How carrots became orange
When you think of a carrot, you might think of the iconic and ubiquitous orange kind thatās sold in most grocery stores.
But did you know that carrots only recently became orange?Ā
Before the 16th century, all cultivated carrots were actually purple and yellow, whereas the wild, undomesticated carrots were actually white.Ā
And lucky for us, orange carrots are the most nutritious of all the varieties, according to a group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UC Davis, whoāve assembled theĀ full genome of carrots and traced its evolutionary history all the way back to the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Although their study canāt answer why early cultivators bred carrots to be purple and yellow, they did find the gene that is responsible for turning carrots orange.
Among the 32,000 genes in a carrot, the Y-gene is what creates an accumulation of orange and yellow carotenoid pigments that turn the white wild carrots into the variety we are familiar with today.
Their studyĀ also verified that the color of carrots is genetically linked to nutrients rather than flavor. Other knowledge gained from this study could help improve carrots and similar staple crops in Africa.
āThis was an important public-private project, and the genomic information has already been made available to assist in improving carrot traits such as enhanced levels of beta-carotene, drought tolerance and disease resistance,ā said co-author Allen Van Deynze, director of research at UC Davisā Seed Biotechnology Center. āGoing forward, the genome will serve as the basis for molecular breeding of the carrot.ā
Carrots have also evolved in other ways beyond just color variation. Check out the video below, which explains why they taste sweeter in the winter:
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